Males have a bright red head, breast, and back, while females are mostly brown. The species also occurs in lowland gardens, farms, and forest edges.
The male has a bright red head, breast, and back. The female is brown above and pale below, with a red rump.
It occurs from lowlands into lower foothills in gardens, cultivated areas, forest edges, and open or degraded forest. Its song is a quiet series of very high tinkling notes.
It eats seeds, berries and small insects, including berries of mistletoes.
In Yogyakarta, a pair plucked fibres from Calotropis gigantea fruits. The female did most of the collecting, and on one occasion both birds plucked fibres from the same fruit.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.