Known from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, this antpitta has been found in dense forest understory at 2,200-2,900 m, with abundant mosses and epiphytes.
About 13 cm long, it has brown upperparts, a reddish-brown head, breast and flanks, and greyish-buff rear underparts. The sexes look alike.
Records are from dense forest understory and ground at 2,200-2,900 m, where mosses and epiphytes are abundant. It appears to run rather than fly when searching for food; a mainly invertebrate diet is presumed, not well documented.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.