This small bird is widespread across mainland Australia. Breeding males have blue heads and chestnut shoulders, while non-breeding males, females, and young birds are generally brownish gray.
Breeding males have blue crowns and sides of the head and a rich chestnut shoulder patch. Their colors vary among four subspecies. Non-breeding males, females, and young birds are brownish gray; females in the Northern Territory and Western Australia are blue-gray.
It lives in territorial communal groups that include an adult male and female and younger birds. It searches for insects around small shrubs and in short trees and grasses, and eats some seeds; it seldom enters open ground.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.