It inhabits areas with thick cover afforded by rank undergrowth and scrub, including in suitable coastal regions.

The sexes are similar, adults having a blackish crown and nape, a white supercilium, rufous-brown back, chestnut wings, blackish rump and black tail, glossed with green, with a white tip.

Juveniles have rufous streaking on the crown, a faint buff supercilium, barred upper parts and darker underparts.

[2] The white-browed coucal is native to eastern and southern Africa, and the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula.

Its range includes Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe in Africa, as well as Saudi Arabia and Yemen.