This 19–21 cm thornbird occurs in wetland-edge thickets and other scrub. It searches on the ground and in dense vegetation for insects and other invertebrates.
The crown and wings are reddish chestnut, with fine pale streaks on the crown. The throat and belly are whitish, the flanks pale rufous-brown, and the two-toned bill has a dark upper mandible and pale lower mandible. Eye color ranges from yellow to orange.
It forages alone or in pairs on the forest floor and in the understory, gleaning invertebrates from dense vegetation. Its bulky cone-shaped stick nest is suspended over low vegetation and sometimes over water.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.