The broadbill is mostly purplish-red, with yellow-streaked black wings, a bright blue beak, a blackish face and greyish chin and upper breast.

The species mainly eats arthropods such as orthopterans (grasshoppers, katydids and crickets), true bugs and beetles, but has also been recorded feeding on snails, lizards, frogs and figs.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which splits the banded broadbill into two species, classifies javanicus as being near-threatened and the other subspecies as being of least concern.

The banded broadbill was described as Eurylaimus javanicus by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield in 1821 based on specimens from Java.

[6] The species is called takau rimba in Malay and Nok Phaya Paak Kwaang laay leuang in Thai.

[5][8] Based on a 2017 study by the Brazilian researcher Alexandre Selvatti and colleagues, its closest relative is the black-and-yellow broadbill.

The weight of 10 adult pallidus specimens from the Malay Peninsula was 65.1–95.0 g (2.30–3.35 oz), males weighing slightly more than females.

It may be mistaken for black-and-yellow broadbill, which differs in its smaller size, black head and contrasting white collar.

[12] Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a glossy purple-red head, which turns black towards the lores (region between the eyes and beak) and base of the bill.

The chin, throat and ear-coverts are slightly lighter, with a black band across the neck; this neckband is sometimes faint or absent in males from Borneo and Java.

[7][12] It is among the widest-billed broadbills, with a thick, heart-shaped and wide tongue that allows it to mash and "chew" its food, helping the species consume relatively large prey.

The throat is yellowish with pale dark streaks and is separated from the breast by a yellowish-white strip, the rest of the underparts being a pink-tinted yellow.

As juveniles age, the yellow on the body is gradually replaced with purple-pink, starting with the head and side of the neck.

[17] The species' song is a remarkable, short, loud wheeoo or wiuk, occasionally prefaced with 4–9 whirr notes and always followed with a noisy, high-speed, rattling trill lasting 5–9 seconds that initially rises in pitch before quickly falling.

Other calls include a nasal whee-u, a squeaky kyeeow, a keowrr and a squealing keek-eek-eek similar to that of a black-and-red broadbill.

It has a toothed bill-tip and spends the majority of its time still-hunting, taking off from high perches and grabbing prey from nearby branches and the undersides of leaves.

[7][12] On the Malay Peninsula, breeding in the banded broadbill usually takes place in the dry season following the East Asian Monsoon.

Nests are generally hung from a sideways branch close to the trunk, but are sometimes also suspended from thick leaves and bamboo tips.

Materials used to make the nest include leaves, twigs, roots, fibres, moss, leaf skeletons, grass stems and bryophytes.

[18] The inner chamber is covered with leaves and thick grass stems, and the outside is embellished with lichen, bryophytes, green moss, insect excreta, cocoons and cobwebs, presumably to provide camouflage.

They have a smooth and slightly shiny surface and are usually dull white with dark purple or reddish-brown flecks, denser at the wide end; West Javan eggs are dirty white, sometimes tinged pink, with dense rusty-brown to lavender-grey markings concentrated at the broader end.

[7][12] The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which splits the banded broadbill into two species, classifies javanicus as being near-threatened and all the other subspecies as being of least concern.

Although it is patchily distributed and scarce in central and eastern Java, javanicus has also been observed in some protected areas like Mount Gede Pangrango National Park.

The remaining subspecies are mostly uncommon to locally common throughout their range, but have been described as being scarce in Brunei and very rare in northern Thailand.