The black-capped kingfisher was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1780.

[2] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle, which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.

[3] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name, but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Alcedo pileata in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.

The adult has purple-blue wings and back, black head and shoulders, white neck collar and throat, and rufous underparts.

In flight, large white patches or "mirrors" at the base of the primaries are visible on the blue and black wings.

[5] Vagrants in winter have been recorded in Pakistan,[12] while movements related to rainfall may lead to their being found far inland and away from their usual distribution.