There is a morph of this species in which the male has the chestnut parts of the plumage replaced by white, and some races have black tail streamers.

The red-bellied paradise flycatcher is a noisy bird with a sharp zweet call.

It has short legs and sits very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike.

The black-bellied African paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone viridis, is closely related to this species, and hybrids occur with the underparts a mixture of black and red.

The red-bellied paradise flycatcher is a common resident breeder in tropical western Africa south of the Sahara Desert.