The male is a medium-sized bird, up to 25 cm long, with flame orange and golden yellow plumage, elongated neck plumes and yellow-tipped black tail.

The flame bowerbird is distributed in and endemic to rainforests of southern New Guinea.

The male flame bowerbird also has a courtship display along with his bower, twisting his tails and his wings to the side, and then shaking his head quickly.

The courtship behaviour of the flame bowerbird was filmed by Japanese photographer Tadashi Shimada in Dancers on Fire, a documentary that aired on the Smithsonian Channel, and has also been documented in Dancing with the Birds.

The flame bowerbird is evaluated as least concerned on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.