[1][2] The species are smallish birds with tails that are usually long and pointed; the scientific name of the genus Megalurus in fact means "the large-tailed one" in plain English.

They are less wren-like than the typical shrub-warblers (Cettia), but they are similarly drab brownish or buffy all over.

They tend to be larger and slimmer than Cettia though, and many have bold dark streaks on wings and/or underside.

Most live in scrubland and frequently hunt food by clambering through thick tangled growth or pursuing it on the ground; they are perhaps the most terrestrial of the "warblers".

[4] A comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the grassbird family Locustellidae published in 2018 found that many of the genera, as then defined, were non-monophyletic.