They are commonly found in open scrub areas and often seen running along the ground or perching on low thorny shrubs and rocks.

The long tail is usually held up and the chestnut undertail coverts and dark body make them easily distinguishable from pied bushchats and Oriental magpie-robins.

In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Indian robin in his Ornithologie based on a specimen that he mistakenly believed had been collected in the Philippines.

He used the French name Le grand traquet des Philippines and the Latin Rubetra Philippensis Major.

[5] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

[6] When the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the 12th edition in 1766, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Motacilla fulicata and cited Brisson's work.

[10][11][12][13] The Indian robin is sexually dimorphic in plumage, with the male being mainly black with a white shoulder patch or stripe whose visible extent can vary with posture.

The males have chestnut undertail coverts and these are visible as the bird usually holds the 6–8 cm long tail raised upright.

The females are brownish above, have no white shoulder stripe and are greyish below, with the vent a paler shade of chestnut than the males.

The subspecies intermedius includes birds in appearance between cambaiensis, erythrura and fulicata, the last one found in central India and parts of the Deccan region.

[16] Older classifications treat the population in southern India as the subspecies ptymatura while considering the type locality as Sri Lanka,[17] although it has subsequently been restricted to Pondicherry.

[18] Local names recorded by Jerdon include Nalanchi (Telugu), Wannatikuruvi (Tamil, Washerman bird), Dayaal (Marathi) Kalchuri (Hindi) and Paan kiriththaa (Sinhala).

The ground colour is white, often tinged with faint green or pink which is rather closely spotted, speckled, streaked, or mottled with rich reddish- or umber-brown and brownish-yellow with some underlying lavender.