This small flycatcher ranges broadly from Central into South America, using scrub and wooded habitats. This account excludes populations assigned to the separately recognized Tumbesian and Marañón tyrannulets.
It is about 11–12 cm long, with gray-brown to olive-brown upperparts, two pale wing-bars, a whitish eyebrow, and a pale yellowish lower belly.
It uses tropical and subtropical scrub and woodland and feeds on insects and small fruits. It is absent from dense rainforest and the high Andes.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.