This tanager inhabits high-elevation forest on the eastern Andes. It takes small invertebrates and sometimes joins mixed-species flocks.
It has a black head with a broad buff-white eyebrow and an olive-brown stripe along the crown; the back and tail are olive brown and the underside buff to ochre.
It occurs in humid elfin forest and forest patches near the páramo edge, feeding on invertebrates and sometimes moving in mixed-species flocks.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.