It is found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, ranging across Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

The first description by a European ornithologist was published by George Edwards in 1750, as "the little black and orange colour'd Indian hawk".

[2] In 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus used the illustration and description by Edwards to formally describe the species under the binomial name Falco cærulescens.

[3][4] In 1760 the French naturalist Mathurin Jacques Brisson also used Edwards' publication to describe le Faucon de Bengale.

[5] Richard Bowdler Sharpe introduced the genus Microhierax in 1874, from the Greek μικρόσ ἱεραξ meaning "tiny hawk".