The Buffy Tuftedcheek inhabits wet mountain forests in Costa Rica and western Panama. A study in Costa Rica recorded it searching among the leaves of epiphytic bromeliads for arthropods.
It has conspicuous buff cheek tufts and a bright rufous-orange tail with a notch at the tip.
At a montane rainforest site in Costa Rica, it searched leaf litter and organic debris trapped in large epiphytic bromeliads and ate arthropods.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.