Dark brown on the upperparts and chest with a pale belly, a fairly long stout black bill, and a grayish head with faint streaks.

Nest has been described as cup-shaped made of mixed grasses, roots, twigs and leaves all woven together with spider webs and coocoon silk.

The forests of Mindoro threatened by habitat loss through legal and illegal logging, mining, road construction, slash-and-burn or kaingin and trapping for both food and the pet trade.

By 1988, extensive deforestation on Mindoro had reduced forest cover to a mere 120km2, of which only a small proportion is below this species's upper altitudinal limit.

Slash-and-burn cultivation, occasional selective logging and rattan collection threaten the forest fragments that still support the species.