This wren ranges from southern Panama into humid forests of Colombia. A Colombian university account describes a grey-to-black head, white eyebrow and ear marks, and rufous-brown breast.
The regional account describes a head darkening from grey to black, white marks by the eyebrow and ear, rufous-brown breast, shoulders, and back, and black bars on the tail.
It uses the middle and lower layers of humid forest and moves in pairs through dense understory. The account reports records at roughly 800–1,800 m.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.