A striking medium-sized, ground-dwelling bird of wet forests with dense foliage. Extremely shy; best seen right at dawn when it sometimes visits road and trail edges. No other species in range shares its starkly contrasting black upperparts and largely orange belly. Also note its bright orange bill and eyering, which are shared with the Red-legged Thrush, but note the gray underparts on Red-legged Thrush. Song is a combination of brief up-slurred and down-slurred notes plus sweet whistles of varying length that are given slowly and repetitively.