This brown tinamou has a round black patch on its crown and red legs. Females have crossbars on the back.
The back and wings are chocolate to dark brown, with a round black crown patch. The lower face and throat are reddish brown, and the legs are red. Females have bars across the back and rump.
It eats seeds, small fruits, insects, worms, and larvae. It uses floodplain and foothill forests, including secondary woodland, but its behavior is poorly known.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.