It is slightly larger than the North American blue jay and is a bluish-grey in overall colour which becomes almost white on the forehead.

The iris of the bird is brown and the eye is surrounded by a band of naked bright blue skin.

The range of this species is quite restricted, it being confined to thorn acacia country in southern Ethiopia near Yavello (Javello), Mega, and Arero.

It can be curiously absent from apparently suitable country near these areas; the reasons for this were formerly unclear, but are now thought to be related to the species requiring a "bubble" of lower temperature for proper foraging, which is only present within its small range, making it one of the few warm-blooded animals whose survival is wholly dependent on temperature (along with the sympatric white-tailed swallow).

[4] DNA-sequencing analysis supports its placement in the corvids, with its closest relatives being the ground jays, and the piapiac.

[4] The genus name Zavattariornis commemorates Edoardo Zavattari, an Italian zoologist and explorer who served as the director of Rome University's Zoological Institute between 1935 and 1958.

[6] The juvenile Stresemann's bushcrow is slightly duller than the adult, and the feathers of the body and upperwings are fringed with creamy-fawn.

[6] Stresemann's bushcrow lives in flat savanna covered with mature acacia and Commiphora thornbushes.

[9] For many years it was unknown why the species could be completely absent from areas of suitable habitat near seemingly identical but inhabited land.

[6] However recent research has revealed that the bird appears to inhabit an area with a very precise average temperature extreme, all of the seemingly suitable but uninhabited surrounding lands actually have a slightly higher average temperature that appears to prevent the birds from successfully colonizing.

[9] A foraging bushcrow digs vigorously in the soil while its beak is held slightly open to catch any insects it unearths.

[9] When it catches something, it carries it to the nearest tree or bush, pins it down with its foot, and kills and eats the prey.

[9] The bushcrow occasionally has a third bird, or in rare cases two to four more, help the breeding couple both build the nest and care for the young.

[9] Allofeeding and allopreening, where the birds feed or preen each other, takes place both between the pair and with the other bushcrows in the colony.

[6] To start constructing the nest, a single twig is inserted into the top of an acacia tree 5 to 6 meters (16 to 20 ft) above the ground.

[6] The bushcrow's eggs are cream-colored with pale lilac blotches that concentrate into a ring at the wider end.

[6] Prior to modern settlement in villages, the nomadic indigenous peoples of Ethiopia provided easy hunting grounds for the bushcrow as they left loose, dung-covered soil behind as they moved their cattle.

[13] Changes in the grazing habits of Ethiopia's indigenous peoples following the recent trend of settling in permanent villages have negatively impacted the Stresemann's bushcrow.

[9] In the Yabello Wildlife Sanctuary, acacia trees are being collected for firewood, removing the bushcrow's nesting site.

[1] Due to its extremely unusual and specific temperature requirements, the Stresemann's bushcrow is considered one of the most threatened birds by climate change; climate change is predicted to reduced its range by 90% by 2070 in even the best-case scenarios (occupied range can often overestimate the number of individuals occupying the range, so the estimated population reduction may be even more than 90%), dramatically increasing the risk of extinction, with worse scenarios leading to total extinction in the wild.

The birds and their projected decline may be used as indicator species for climate change, allowing them to test the reliability of habitat models for other threatened animals.