This antwren is recorded in remaining evergreen forest in Alagoas and Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil. The 1983 type description gives a streaked black and buff crown, chestnut back and orange underside. In 2018, ICMBio reported severe fragmentation and continuing habitat loss and assessed the species as Critically Endangered in Brazil.
The 1983 type description gives black and pale buff streaking on the crown, a chestnut mantle, rump and upper tail coverts, orange underparts and whitish underwing coverts. This describes the type specimen and is not presented as a complete account of sexual or individual variation.
ICMBio's 2018 Red Book records the bird mainly in evergreen forest at 300–700 m, with a few records below 100 m. It forages 7–20 m above ground, searching vines and bromeliads and inspecting leaf blades for small arthropods. It often joins mixed-species flocks outside the breeding season.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.