The overall colouring of the adult bird is black with randomly bleached wing and tail feathers.

The forward pointing nasal bristles so often prominent in other Corvus species are very reduced also.

The juvenile bird by comparison has remarkably pale plumage being light brown to cream, the wings, tail and primaries showing blackish-brown and fawn and the head and underparts often almost white.

The species occurs all over the huge island of New Guinea and associated offshore islands in both primary and secondary forest in both lowland and hill forest up to 1350 m. Feeding is both on the ground and in trees taking a very wide range of items.

Fruit seems to be very important making up a large percentage of the intake though small animals such as frogs and aquatic insect larvae are taken from shallow water on sand or shingle beds in rivers.