The orange chat is a small ground songbird with relatively long, broad, rounded wings and a short, square-ended tail.

[3] The orange chat is potbellied in shape with long thin legs, a short slender straight bill and a brush-tipped tongue.

Male feathers are mostly a deep, warm, cadmium yellow with an orange overtone, and this colour is strongest on the crown and breast.

[6] They are found mainly in the interior with some sightings in the northern tropics, and very occasionally they reach the coastal areas of South and Western Australia.

They mainly inhabit low, treeless chenopod shrublands dominated by saltbush, bluebush or samphire, with either open or continuous shrub cover.

[9] They are sometimes recorded in other open or shrubby habitats, often near wetlands: low mulga, low buloke woodland; open acacia scrubland; dongas (steep-sided gullies) vegetated with tall shrubs or small trees including mulga, dead finish, belah or sugarwood; grassland; or sedgeland.

[6] The orange chat has occasionally been recorded in mallee woodlands and on farmlands, including areas over-run by scotch thistle.

During droughts or dry spells, the orange chat will be absent or nearly so from normal habitats and will sometimes be recorded towards the periphery of their usual range.

They are easy to see from a distance perched atop low bushes, shrubs or trees, due to the vivid orange plumage of the male.

[5] Calls do not form a significant part of territorial activity, although the male clicks his bill when flying at intruders; this is often accompanied by a squeak.

[6] Orange chats mainly eat invertebrates, small insects (ants, bees, wasps, beetles, caterpillars and grasshoppers) and spiders that are on the ground or in shrubs.

[6] The female orange chat will build a small but quite substantial nest in a cup shape, which is located close to the ground in shrubs or herbage, commonly saltbush or samphire.

[6] Nests are built in samphire or chenopod shrubland, around salt lakes, and occasionally on grass flats or gibber plains.

Predators include both introduced and native species: cats, snakes, foxes and larger birds, like ravens and crows.