This handsome pitta is about the color of a chocolate chip cookie. Only the warmer-colored male is “eared”, possessing the speckled silvery tufts on either side of the head. The female is darker, with extensive black speckling on the underparts. Both sexes have an elegant black mask extending from the bill base to the nape. Forages unobtrusively on the floor of lowland rainforests and dry deciduous forests. Gives a long, drawn-out whistle with the second half being deflected upwards.