The plumage is silky, the crown is black, the upper parts and tail are light brown or greyish-brown, and the lower breast and belly is suffused with red.

[2] As a member of the cuckoo family, it has a reversible third toe and resembles the coucal in its method of scrambling through tangled bushes and lianas while searching for food.

The diet and the feeding strategies used vary with the season, and include gleaning, probing the litter, chasing prey, leaping and sallying into the air to catch insects.

Towards the end of the dry season, birds form monogamous pairs, usually jointly occupying their individual home ranges.

On several occasions males have been observed approaching females carrying a gift (a caterpillar or a grasshopper), but after mating, has consumed the insect himself.