Chocolate-backed Kingfisher

The chocolate-backed kingfisher has the typical stocky kingfisher shape with dark upper parts and pure white underparts. The head and hind neck are very dark brown, the mantle is brownish black, the back is black, the rump a brilliant iridescent blue, the upper tail coverts are black, and the tail is pale blue. The wings are dark, apart from a brilliant azure speculum formed in the outer webs of the secondary feathers. The underparts from the throat to the vent are snowy white, apart from a small blackish flank patch, and are clearly demarcated from the dark upper parts. In flight the brilliant blue rump and speculum are distinctive. The bill is red or reddish brown. Juveniles are similar to adults, except that the breast is scalloped and the bill is blackish with an orange tip.

The chocolate-backed kingfisher occurs across the African tropical rainforest : west of the Dahomey Gap from Sierra Leone to Ghana, then from southern Nigeria east to southern Central African Republic and western Uganda, south to the Kwango River in northern Angola. It is also found on Bioko.