This West African whydah uses savanna and woodland. One male was recorded at Bumbuna, Sierra Leone, in February 2017.
A breeding male is mostly black, with a rufous breast, yellow hindneck, and long narrow tail. Female and nonbreeding plumages are poorly known; the source describes a streaked brown back and pale underparts.
It occurs in savanna and woodland and is reported to eat seeds, foraging on the ground; the newsletter also mentions cultivated areas.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.