The most striking feature is the bill, which is strongly decurved and measures 77 mm (3.0 in) and is blue-grey fading to ivory at the tip.

The plumage is striking, with a white head, breast and belly and the back, wings and tail being black with a blue sheen.

These flocks become smaller during the breeding season, but retain a small group of non-breeders that forage together over a wide area.

The species feeds on a wide range of terrestrial invertebrates, including spiders, cockroaches, crickets, beetles, and worms.

They generally feed in trees and particularly favour large branches, and will probe their long bill deep into holes and use it to lever off bark to get at concealed prey, occupying part of the niche usually filled by woodpeckers, which are absent from Madagascar (they do not fully fill the niche as they do not hammer the wood for prey).

The species is one of the vangas that has a polyandrous breeding system, where one female will mate with two or more males and all are responsible for raising the young.

It is the female that engages in courtship displays, approaching the male and quivering her wings while holding the body in a horizontal posture.

[4] The nest is atypical for the family, consisting of a large untidy bowl of twigs, 30–40 centimetres (12–16 in) in diameter, situated 9–16 metres (30–52 ft) off the ground in the fork of a tree.

Both sexes incubate the eggs, and feed and brood the chicks, but as with nest construction the female does more of the work than the males.