Males are red and black, while females are much duller. This small finch eats fruit, seeds, and buds, and may move with seasonal rains.
The male has vivid vermilion on the breast, belly, and undertail, with a black head, throat, wings, and tail. The female is duller, with red limited mainly to the upper breast and some markings.
It eats fruit, flower buds, grass seeds, and herbaceous plants. In open dry forest it moves according to seasonal precipitation.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.