This bird has dark upperparts, a white eyebrow and throat, and a rufous belly. It lives in wooded thickets in southern Africa and searches for food on the ground, flicking leaves aside.
Layard’s 1867 description gives a very dark grey to nearly black head, back, and central tail feathers; a bright rufous rump and outer tail feathers with dark tips; white lines above the eyes and from the shoulder toward the end of the closed wing; a white throat and breast; and a rufous belly, flanks, and vent.
It uses thickets in Acacia and broadleaved woodland, sand forest, thorny scrub and dune-forest edges, and also visits wooded gardens. It forages mainly on the ground, flicking leaves aside. Its food is chiefly insects, with fruit and small vertebrates; it occasionally catches insects in flight.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.