A small ground-dwelling bird that inhabits wet forest or rainforest, it is mainly insectivorous. The bird has a distinctive yellow throat and eyebrow. The male face is black and the female brown. The crown and upperparts are dark- to olive-brown, and the underparts cream, white or washed-out olive. The wings are dark brown and edged with yellow. Breeding twice or more in a long breeding season, it nests in large, suspended, pear-shaped structures. Often over water, they resemble flood debris, which they are often placed nearby. These nests are the preferred roosts of the golden-tipped bat ("Phoniscus papuensis").