The Varied Sitella is a small, short-tailed, dumpy bird which is usually heard before it is seen in the upper branches. The iris is orange-yellow, and the eye-ring, legs and feet are yellow. The bill is long and slender and slightly up-turned. Adults are greyish above and white below, with varied streaking. The upper tail coverts are pale, with dark-barring underneath. The tail is dark with a white tip. The upper wings are dark; the underwings have an orange-rufous band. Males have longer bills than females and tend to feed lower. Sitellas are usually seen in flocks, moving swiftly between trees or foraging busily, head down, over branches or down the trunk.