Gould stated that this species was the largest and most brilliantly coloured kingfisher of the genus Alcedo. It was first described in 1845 by the ornithologist Edward Blyth (1810-1873) and the type specimen, which was imperfect, was kept in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, where Blyth was curator. About twenty-five years later Blyth's successor at the Museum, Dr. John Anderson, acquired another specimen also from Darjeeling, which was the most perfect example known of this magnificent kingfisher. He sent it to England and it was illustrated in both Gould's The Birds of Asia and R.B. Sharpe's Monograph of the Alcedinidae, or family of Kingfishers 1868-1871. Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909), Gould's friend and protégé began publishing his book on kingfishers when he was only twenty-one, with illustrations by J.G. Keulemans. After Gould's death in 1881, Sharpe completed the last parts of the The Birds of Asia, indexed Gould's illustrations, and wrote a short biography.
The kingfisher is depicted lifesize.
E.Blyth, The Ibis, 1865, pp.30,31 and The Ibis, 1866, pp.348, 363
R.B. Sharpe, Monograph of the Alcedinidae, p.19, pl.3
DISTRIBUTION: Southern Asia: From Sikim, Bhutan as far as northeastern India east through Bangladesh and northern Burma, occasionally in the south and in neighbouring northernmost Tibet, to Yunnan in southwestern China, Hainan island, northern Laos and northern Vietnam. Widespread but threatened by deforestation, river pollution and human disturbance and listed as vulnerable