This small bird lives in South America's Atlantic Forest and is closely associated with bamboo. It eats bamboo buds, shoots and insects, and may move as bamboo conditions change.
Males are dark slaty blue, blacker on the foreface and underparts, with white wing linings. Females are tawny brown and slightly paler below.
It feeds on bamboo seeds, buds, shoots and petioles, as well as insects. It forages low in bamboo and may wander to find living bamboo after a stand flowers and dies.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.