It has warm olive-brown to buff upperparts and whitish underparts with heavy black scaling.

The scaly thrush is smaller and has fourteen tail feathers.

The Amami thrush ranges in length from 29 to 31 cm (11 to 12 in) and weighs approximately 172 g (6.1 oz).

[2] Its breeding habitat is mature subtropical broadleaved evergreen forest around humid valleys.

The breeding population is estimated by Amami Ornithologists' Club (NPO, Japan) all over the island every late March since 1999.