This laughingthrush lives in forests of the eastern Himalayas. It has a brown crown and back, a white throat and breast, and broad gray flanks.
The crown, upperparts, and tail are brown, with a white throat and breast and broad gray flanks. The extent of white on the cheek varies among subspecies.
It uses dense undergrowth, including bamboo thickets, in broadleaf evergreen forest and forages on the ground and in low bushes.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.