The historical Southeast Brazil account describes a tanager whose male is reddish and whose female is olive-brown. It forages low in forest, in pairs or small family groups.
Males are brown-red above and brighter red below, with grey flanks and a scarlet crown patch bordered by black. Females are olive-brown with a yellow crown patch and buffy or light ochraceous underparts.
It forages in hops and short fluttering movements close to the ground, no higher than about 10 m. It occurs in pairs and small family groups, sometimes in mixed flocks, follows driver-ant swarms, and avoids forest edges.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.