We characterize the shear bands generated in simple shear flow of a crystallizing colloidal suspension. 35 volume % suspensions of poly(methyl methacrylate) colloids of diameter 0.68 μm were dispersed in the viscous solvent dioctyl phthalate and subjected to plane Couette flow. The equilibrium structure of this suspension was crystalline and flow accelerated its crystallization kinetics significantly. Confocal laser scanning microscopy and particle tracking were used to characterize the height-dependent velocity profile in the gap of the shear flow. Near each of the two boundary surfaces, a region of high shear rate flow was observed. A low shear rate region was observed at the center of the gap. The differences in the shear rate within the two banded regions were a function of the both the applied shear rate and strain. The effect of strain indicated that the shear band development was a transient phenomenon. We found that the boundary between the high shear rate and low shear rate regions correlated with the location of crystalline and amorphous regions in the gap of the shear cell, as visualized by confocal microscopy. Furthermore, the different local shear rates observed in the banded regions were consistent with the different viscosities of the amorphous and crystalline suspensions. The results demonstrate that shear banded flows accompany shearinduced colloidal crystallization, and that the bands exhibit transient behavior because the crystallization process itself is strain dependent.