The Tickell's Blue Flycatcher is a small perching bird in the flycatcher family. This is an insectivorous species which breeds in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka to Indonesia. They are blue on the upperparts and the throat and breast are rufous. They are found in dense scrub to forest habitats.
The Tickell's Blue Flycatcher is 15 cm long. It sits upright and often forages in the undergrowth. The male has the upperparts dark blue and the throat breast and flanks are orange fading into the buffy white belly. The female is duller blue with a brighter blue brow, shoulder, rump and tail. It hybridizes with the Pale-chinned Flycatcher in the Eastern Ghats of India and these hybrids have sometimes been called the subspecies vernayi. The juvenile is streaked and has a spotted mantle.It is an upright long-tailed flycatcher. The male is a beautiful bird which has bright blue upperparts, a red throat and breast, and the rest of the underparts white.
Females are duller, and the red is reduced in intensity and extent. Juvenile birds have scaly brown upperparts, head and breast, with just the wings and tail being blue. They have sometimes been to feed even after dusk. Apart from flying insects they have been noted to occasionally glean crawling insects.
The widespread species shows regional variations in plumage and size and several of these populations have been designated with subspecies names. The nominate form is found in India, Nepal and Myanmar.