Breeding males draw attention with a vivid blue back and white belly. Females are mainly brown, and nonbreeding or young males look more like females.
A breeding male has a blue head and back, white belly, and orange throat and chest. The female is brown with a pale orange throat and rufous uppertail. Nonbreeding and young males resemble females but retain blue on the wings and back.
It breeds in moist evergreen broadleaf montane forest and moves downslope in winter to more open woods and edges. It forages in the middle levels and sometimes joins mixed-species flocks.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.