A small tanager with a yellow-orange head. It moves through scrub, savanna, and forest edges.
It has a slender bill and bright yellow-orange head. The eastern subspecies has an olive-brown back and cinnamon underparts; the western subspecies is gray above and white below. Females are duller.
It searches for food at eye level or higher in savanna, woodland, and forest edges. In 2005 it was observed in lowland forest by a river mixed with cattle-modified pasture in Santa Catarina, southern Brazil.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.