This small gnatcatcher includes several regional forms. In Peru it has grey upperparts, whitish to greyish underparts, and a black-and-white tail that it often cocks.
About 10.7 cm long, with grey upperparts, white to greyish underparts, black central tail feathers, and white outer tail feathers. Peruvian subspecies differ in the male's black cap and in the amount of white and dark lining on the female's face.
It frequently cocks its tail. In Peru, P. p. bilineata uses deciduous forest and scrub below 1,000 m in the northwest; the Marañon form occurs in deciduous forest and scrub up to 2,500 m; another form uses forest edges, várzea, and Andean foothills below 1,000 m.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.