This small bird breeds in the mountains of southern China and winters in northeastern India. Males show a bright orange throat and breast; females are brown.
Males have dark blue-grey upperparts and a bright orange throat and breast edged in black. Females have a dark olive-brown face, brown upperparts and buff underparts.
During breeding it uses mountain scrub, forest and bamboo thickets in southern China. In winter it searches for insects in dense streamside undergrowth and also forages on the ground.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.