The species is notably sexually dichromatic.
Females have short gray body hair and are lighter on the ventrum.
The face is gray and the cheeks and throat are pale. Male body coat is dark gray-brown dorsally, the tail is dark, the face gray and the nose black. The limbs are paler than the back. Both sexes have an orange v-shaped pattern pointing forward on the head, while often the orange crown color circles around the face to connect with the red beard. It can easily be distinguished from E. f. sanfordi , the only other sympatric member of the genus Eulemur , by the presence of the V-shpaged crown and by the absence of white ear tufts and beard that are so characteristic of male E. f. sanfordi.