A Peruvian brush-finch with a grey body and rufous head. It forages in Andean scrub and Polylepis woodland.
It is about 18.5 cm long. The upperparts are dusky grey and the underparts lighter grey, with a whitish belly centre. It has a rufous head, black lores and eye area, a black malar stripe and white forehead spots.
It forages in Andean scrub and Polylepis woodland. The account places it in montane scrub and woodland on the western Andean slope at 2,700–4,100 m.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.