Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Tickell's blue flycatcher is a small insect-eating flycatcher that breeds in tropical Asia from the Indian subcontinent east to Bangladesh and western Myanmar, in habitats from dense scrub to forest. It is about 11 to 12 cm long and sits upright, foraging mainly in overgrowth. The male is bright blue above with a red throat and breast and white belly; the female is a duller blue with a brighter blue brow, shoulder, rump and tail (Wikipedia, general species account).

It sometimes feeds after dusk and takes crawling as well as flying insects. The Sri Lankan population is the subspecies jerdoni, which has a longer bill. The name commemorates the wife of the ornithologist Samuel Tickell. Nationally Least Concern (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).