The most obvious difference between sexes is the bright rusty-brown spot on the fore-flanks of the adult female and all birds exhibit the characteristic cocked tail posture common to all malurids.

The mouse-like, strongly terrestrial, habits of the species can make it difficult to observe clearly within its preferred habitat of boulder-strewn rocky hillsides covered with spinifex grasses.

Although these species may display a superficial resemblance to the dusky grasswren in their contact calls, their posture and manner of moving, and their general size and shape, if properly seen and heard in full song they are easy to separate.

The fairywren species are all a uniform grey colour (except for breeding males which will sport brightly-coloured alternate plumage) with varying amounts of blue visible on adult's tails.

The vocal repertoire of the dusky grasswren is varied and includes trills, high-pitched whistles, rapid twittering, and high-speed warbling.

In captivity the species has been observed to subsist on a typical aviary feed-out of meat mix, greens and vegetables enriched with a variety of live invertebrate prey including cockroaches and mealworms.

[9] Likewise there are no published data on the impacts of fire on this species but there are abundant anecdotal accounts suggesting that it may take decades for birds to return to habitat once it has been burnt.

Due to their cryptic nature and perhaps the allure of their remote homelands, all of the grasswrens in the genus Amytornis have attracted devotees among ornithologists and birdwatchers from around the world.

It occurs in healthy numbers in the MacDonnell Range close to the major outback town of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and has been regularly recorded and well-photographed in this vicinity.

Due to its large range, the dusky grasswren occurs in the traditional lands of dozens of Indigenous peoples of central Australia.