Jade-green pitta with densely striped, green underparts and a black mask. Male has an aquamarine-blue patch on the back of the crown and a dark purplish-blue one on the belly. Female lacks both of these features and instead has a pale orangish head. Like other pittas, forages deep in dense undergrowth and can be hard to see, especially in the limestone gullies and forested riversides it prefers. Predominantly a lowland species. Song is a brief, bubbly-sounding exclamation of three notes, akin to “chowee-wu!”. Call sounds rather like a single blare of a police car alarm.