This robin lives in the mountains of New Guinea. Males of the nominate subspecies recorded in the island's northwest are black and white, and forage low in the forest and on the ground for insects.
Males of the nominate subspecies are black, with white upper-tail coverts and belly. A white band runs from the lower throat to the sides of the upper breast.
It inhabits rainforest on hills and lower mountains, where it forages in lower forest levels and on the ground, eating insects and larvae.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.