This whistler has a patchy range in New Guinea. The male has a black head and breast band, white throat, and brown-grey back.
The male has a black crown, hindneck, face, and broad upper-breast band; the chin and throat are white, the upperparts brownish grey, and the rest of the underparts white. The eye is reddish brown and the bill black.
It uses hill eucalypt savanna, mangrove forest, and rubber plantations, and feeds on insects.
Females have a grey head and breast band. Juveniles have rufous patches on the head.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.