They are slightly smaller and neater with a distinctly harder “chip” or “tet” note which is immediately separable. Unusually for a Passer sparrow the sexes are identical. The characteristically rounded head has a bright chestnut crown and nape in the race malacccensis (liver-brown in hepaticus) This contrasts with the whitish cheeks and noticeable, black cheek spots. The bib is small, oval and black. The rest of the plumage is similar to a male House Sparrow.

Chestnut-shouldered Petronias occur throughout the wooded parts of India, preferring open woodland and thorn scrub. Where it occurs near villages and cultivation it will mix with flocks of House Sparrows. It is not uncommon but rather patchy in distribution. It is a slim, long tailed bird and rather secretive when keeping to the treetops. In particular the male, with his monotonous, repeated “cheep” note which passes for a song, is delivered from a stationary position hidden in the foliage and can be the very devil to spot.

Both sexes are rather pale, unstreaked brownish grey with obvious white wing bars. The male has prominent chestnut shoulder patches and its bill turns from yellow to black in the breeding season. The ill-defined tiny yellow throat patch, which is invisible on many females, is not a good identification feature and is best seen on the pulsating throat of a singing male. They are rather flighty birds, reminiscent in flight of the two tree pipits when they are flushed in woodland.