This rare, elusive thrush is known from a small number of sites in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and western Uganda. It uses dense vegetation near the forest floor.
A bird photographed in Bwindi, Uganda, was identified by its black eyestripe and broken white eye-ring. When approached, it entered dense vegetation beside the trail.
The species is summarized as a ground-feeding invertebrate-eater. In Bwindi, records came from lowland primary and transitional forest at 700–1,935 m; the 2012 account reports no records from secondary forest.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.