This warbler lives in the understory of humid forest in the Santa Marta Mountains. Its black head has white markings, its upperparts are olive, and its underside is yellow.
The sexes have the same plumage. The black head has a white central crown stripe, a long white supercilium, and white crescents below the eye and behind the ear. The back, wings, and tail are olive; the throat and underside are yellow.
Its diet has not been studied in detail, but it is thought to consist mostly of invertebrates. It gleans in the lower forest layers and may forage in pairs or small groups within mixed-species flocks.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.