The head is black, forming a mask around the blue facial skin that is extended during courtship; deep orange-red on crest, neck and breast; some males with bright orange collar; rest of body crimson, covered with gray spots on lower breast and black-lined white spots on wing coverts, back and upper tail coverts. The upper parts of the female are varying from rufous to greyish brown, never as reddish as in some satyra, nor as grey as in caboti, strongly mottled with blackish, with arrow-shaped mark of pale buff to greyish white; chin and throat buff to whitish, with black lines; under parts light brown with large whitish spots and black patches.