This babbler is endemic to Luzon in the Philippines. It is recorded in mountain forest as well as open forest, secondary growth, and scrub.
It is about 15 cm long, with a dull chestnut face, gray crown and nape, an incomplete white eye-ring, and a buff-yellow breast. The sexes are similar.
It eats seeds, fruit, spiders, beetles, and other insects, foraging in lower and middle vegetation alone, in pairs, or in small groups. The account gives an April–June breeding season. It occurs mainly above 1,000 m, with local records as low as 100 m.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.