A tall, plain gray-brown chat with upright posture that has a conspicuous eye-ring and a creamy-orange rump. Inner to outer tail feathers have progressively more creamy-orange coloration at the bases, resulting in a black triangle on the tail. Singles and pairs occupy open rangelands, pastures and alpine scrub, where they forage on the ground and from low perches. It flicks its wings, but less habitually than the similar Familiar Chat, which has shorter legs, a less obvious eye-ring, a rufous rump, and a tail with an inverted black “T” pattern.