This babbler occurs in evergreen forest in Vietnam and southern Laos. It searches for invertebrates on or just above the ground in dense cover.
It has brown upperparts, buff-white underparts, a long black down-curved bill, and dark facial stripes.
It uses primary and secondary broadleaf evergreen forest and rocky areas, foraging on or just above the ground in dense vegetation.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.