The red breast and blue bare skin around the eyes stand out on this coua from northeastern Madagascar. It walks on the forest floor for insects and fallen fruit and runs for cover when alarmed.
In a model comparing nine Coua species across Madagascar, Red-breasted Coua occurrences were associated with forest–cropland mosaics and areas with extensive broadleaved deciduous forest. The model estimated suitable area across 11.7% of the island, about 37% of the Crested Coua estimate of 31.6%. It used 25 training presences and eight test records. The pair’s Hurlbert land-cover-use index was 0.871, below 1.0, the reference for use proportional to availability.
It walks while searching for insects and small fruits, including fruit fallen from other birds' feeding. When alarmed it usually runs into cover, and it often sunbathes on the forest floor with its wings dropped and tail fanned.
Adults have bronze to green-brown upperparts, a dark rufous breast, and bright blue bare skin around the eye. Males and females look similar.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.