This tanager inhabits the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. It joins mixed-species flocks high in the canopy and mainly forages for insects.
Males have a grey head and upperparts, a cinnamon-rufous crest edged narrowly in black, and rufous underparts. Females lack the rufous crest and have slightly paler underparts. Immature males resemble females and may have buff mixed into the grey upperparts.
It lives in humid, mossy montane forest, mainly cloud forest, and sometimes uses forest edges. It probes canopy and subcanopy branches for insects and also eats some fruit.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.