The Taiwan Cupwing is endemic to Taiwan's mountain forests. It keeps to dense understory near the ground, is usually solitary, and makes only short flights.
The head, back, and wing coverts are brown with pale buff tips. The throat is gray, while dark feather centers edged in pale buff make a scaled pattern across the chest and belly. The bill is black and the legs gray-brown.
In dense forest understory around 1,000–2,800 m, it usually keeps alone in thickets or close to the ground. The account describes it as shy and a short-distance flier.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.