Like many other nuthatches, the upperparts are gray-blue, contrasting with white underparts on the throat, cheeks, and breast and orange on the flanks, belly, and lower abdomen.

Its white supercilium makes it easy to distinguish it from the white-tailed nuthatch (S. himalayensis), which is a close species in the systematic and geographical sense.

Rippon then spent several months on Nat Ma Taung in 1904, collecting a large number of specimens in response to Wood's initial findings.

[6] It is most likely phylogenetically related to the white-tailed nuthatch (S. himalayensis), prompting Richard Meinertzhagen (in 1927), Ernst Mayr (in 1941), and Charles Vaurie (in 1957) to treat S. victoriae as a subspecies of S.

[7][9] In 1957, British ornithologist Simon Harrap suggested that the small size, solid undertail coverts, and marked white supercilium may indicate close relationships with the Yunnan nuthatch (Sitta yunnanensis).

Underparts are white from the throat and lower chest, but the belly is orange, with the underside and undertail light red and the flanks darker.

The white-browed nuthatch has a white forehead, eyebrows, and lore, and a black line at the back of the eye, thickening backwards on the nape.

[14] The bill is black at the tip and slate gray otherwise; the culmen and lower mandible are iris red-brown or dark brown, paler.

The plant species prospected are Quercus semecarpifolia half the time, but Rhododendron arboreum is also exploited, as well as, to a lesser extent, Lyonia ovalifolia, Lithocarpus dealbatus, Pinus kesiya, and Alnus nepalensis.

Myanma ornithologist Thet Zaw Naing reported in 2003 the observation of three nests between mid-March and early April of the previous year.

[11] In the southern part of the Chin Hills, the white-browed nuthatch is currently found in Nat Ma Taung at nearly 3,070 m (10,070 ft), and 22 km (14 mi) further northwest in the spring of 1995 near Mindat.

[9] The white-browed nuthatch habitat consists mainly of Quercus semecarpifolia oaks, covered with epiphytic plants, lichens, mosses, orchids, and ferns.

[6] The white-browed nuthatch is one of four endemic bird species in Myanmar, the others being the Hooded treepie (Crypsirina cucullata), Burmese bush lark (Mirafra microptera) and White-throated babbler (Turdoides gularis).

In 2007, surveys in the Chin Hills did not find any observations of this nuthatch, suggesting that the species is highly endemic to the Nat Ma Taung region.