Voice
A sharp woodpecker-like 'kyo', 'kya', 'chik' or 'kit'. A thin, short 'pi'. An angry, rattling 'krich-krich...'. Song is a descending tittering trill.
White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) [XC646725]
by from Riyadh, Ar-Riyad, Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia (call)
White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) [XC460164]
by Peter Boesman from Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India (call)
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Javan Kingfisher (Halcyon cyanoventris), and sometimes considered conspecific, but recently found to overlap in range in western Java without interbreeding. Populations described as subspecies perpulchra (Myanmar east to Indochina, south to Greater Sundas) and subspecies fokiensis (southern and eastern China, Taiwan) considered inseparable from fusca.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
smyrnensis (Linnaeus, 1758) - Western and southern Turkey south to north-eastern Egypt, and from central Iraq east to Pakistan, extreme north-eastern Afghanistan and north-western India.
fusca (Boddaert, 1783) - India (except north-west) and Sri Lanka east to south-eastern China and Taiwan, and south to Sumatra and western Java.
saturatior Hume, 1874 - Andaman Is.
gularis (Kuhl, 1820) - Philippines. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon gularis).
perpulchra Madarász, 1904 - Myanmar to Malay Peninsula and Indochina.
fokiensis Laubmann & Götz, 1926 - Southern and eastern China; Hainan and Taiwan.