The pygmy batis, as its name suggests, is a tiny, rather dumpy but dapper black, white and grey bird with similarities to the flycatchers.

The male has a bluish-grey head and back with a contrasting black face mask and short white supercilium above the yellow eye.

The females are similar to the males but have a pale rufous-buff breast band and chin and the face mask, supercilium and wing stripe are buffy brown.

[4] The main call of the pygmy batis is a ling series of repeated sharp high pitched whistles.

They feed mainly within the foliage and glean most of their insect prey from leaves and twigs, with a small proportion taken on the wing.