This small tyrant flycatcher occurs in the mountains of southeastern Ecuador and northern Peru. A 2004 Ecuadorian survey recorded birds searching leaf undersides in dense low vegetation.
Two juveniles collected at Naytza were said to match the cited adult description. They had olive upperparts, cinnamon lores, eye-rings, and ear-coverts, a pale buff breast, and yellow lower underparts.
At Naytza, foraging birds were usually alone or in pairs. Observers saw them gleaning leaf undersides mainly 2–3 m above the ground in the understory, sometimes reaching the lower midstory at about 4 m.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.