[1] The Abyssinian slaty flycatcher is a rather dingy, nondescript grey brown bird which normally perches with the typical vertical posture of an Old World flycatcher.

[3] There are two currently recognised subspecies of Abyssinian slaty flycatcher[2] and they are listed below with their distributions:[4] The Abyssinian slaty flycatcher occurs in mid to high altitude forest, woodland edges, clearings, in agricultural land[5] and in suburbs, where it can be found in large gardens and parks.

It is suspected to breed in January to February and March to June in Ethiopia with enlarged gonads recorded from specimens taken in June, December and March to May.

[4] The nest is cup shaped and is placed at a narrow fork of a horizontal tree branch, the clutch consists of 3 blue-grey, blotched eggs.

[citation needed] The Abyssinian slaty flycatcher forms a superspecies with the Angola slaty flycatcher and the white-eyed slaty flycatcher, and these three species are sometime placed in the genus Dioptrornis, or lumped as a single species but the allopatry and morphological differences shown support their treatment as allospecies.