The Variable Pitohui lives in forests of New Guinea and nearby islands. The color of its head and throat varies among subspecies, and it eats fruit and insects.
Adults of the nominate subspecies have a grey head and throat, dark reddish-brown upperparts, dark grey-brown wings and tail, and rusty underparts. Other subspecies have brown heads and throats or stronger cinnamon tones.
It uses forest edges, mature secondary growth, rainforest, and swamp forest, feeding on fruit and insects from the understorey to the canopy. It sometimes joins mixed fruit-eating flocks.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.