Description - On the top of the head the oven bird has two blackish stripes stretching backwards from the forehead to nape, rest of upper parts, sides of head, and the sides of the neck are plain olive green ; eyerings are whitish and its wings and tail have no white markings at all; under parts are white. Spotted or streaked with blackish on its breast and sides and with a line of same on either side of its throat ; Legs flesh colour.

Measurements - Adult male: wing, 72.8-77.4 mm average wing length (75.5 mm) ; Tail, 53-56 mm average tail length (54.1 mm); Tarsus, 21-22.5 mm average Tarsus (21.9 mm) Adult female: Wing length, 69.8-76.1mm (72.8 mm).

Habitat - Deciduous closed canopy woodlands, preferably with not to much underbrush and a good carpet of leaf litter; sometimes in mixed woods. Sometimes in open jackpine woodland or rarely in white spruce forest.

Nesting - Done on the ground, usually in more open parts of the of the forest floor. Nest is made of grass, weed stems, rootlets, leafs, and moss, with a lining of fine grasses and hair. The female has three to six eggs which are white, spotted with reddish browns and some purplish grey. Incubation 11 days and 12 hours to 14 days, averaging 12 days, 5.6 hours, by the female.

Range - breeds from southern Mackenzie east to Newfoundland and in the US south to eastern Colorado, southeastern Oklahoma, northern Alabama, and northern Georgia. spends its winter from the Gulf of Mexico coast and South Carolina south to Panama, Northern Columbia, northern Venezuela and the lesser Antilles.