see text Ispidina is a genus of small insectivorous African river kingfishers.

The genus was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848 with the African pygmy kingfisher (Ispidina picta) as the type species.

These similar small kingfishers can be distinguished by the blue crown of the African pigmy kingfisher.

They have different habit preferences and have mostly non-overlapping ranges.

The slightly smaller African dwarf kingfisher occurs in tropical rainforests while the African pygmy kingfisher occurs in dry grassy woodland.