This tinamou has reddish-brown plumage. In the eastern Andes of Peru it uses the undergrowth of humid montane forest and is reported to eat mainly seeds.
In the eastern Peruvian account, the head and throat are gray, the upperparts are rufous, and the underside is also reddish chestnut. Plumage varies with elevation and region.
It lives among the dense undergrowth of humid montane forest and eats mainly seeds. The account describes it as fairly common in Peru's eastern Andes.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.