[5] The orange-headed thrush breeds in much of the Indian Subcontinent, including Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, and through Southeast Asia to Java[4] and southern China.

[1] Its habitat is moist broadleaved evergreen woodlands, with a medium-density undergrowth of bushes and ferns, but it also utilises bamboo forests for secondary growth.

The adult male of the nominate subspecies of this small thrush has an entirely orange head and underparts, uniformly grey upperparts and wings, and white median and undertail coverts.

The juvenile is dull brown with buff streaks on its back, and a rufous tone to the head and face; it has grey wings.

Differences between the subspecies, as described above, can be quite striking, as with the strong head pattern on G. c. cyanota, but may be less obvious variations in plumage tone, or whether there is white on the folded wing.

[4] Calls of the orange-headed thrush include a soft chuk or tchuk, a screeching teer-teer-teer, and a thin tsee or dzef given in flight.

[4] The nest, built by both sexes, is a wide but shallow cup of twigs, bracken and rootlets lined with softer plant material like leaves, moss and conifer needles.

[4] This species is a host of the pied cuckoo, Clamator jacobinus, a brood parasite which lay a single egg in the nest.

The population size has not been quantified, but it is believed to be large due to its extensive range; it also reported as being locally common.

[1] It is very popular as cage-bird on Java, and numbers have severely declined in recent years owing to trapping for aviculture.