The plumage is a warm brown colour with distinctive green ocelli (eyelike spots of colour) on the mantle and wings (2) (4). Displaying males raise their crown feathers to form an impressive crest of long feathers (2). Males can be distinguished from other Polyplectron species by a combination of the base colour of the plumage, the presence of buff coloured rings surrounding each ocelli, their orange facial skin and their crest (4). Females possess only a very short crest, are smaller, darker and shorter tailed than males, and have a yellower facial skin (2).