This tapaculo lives in the montane forests of southwestern Ecuador. The male is mainly gray above, and a habitat study records the species in mature cloud forest and older secondary forest.
The original description gives the male gray upperparts, a brown nape and rump, and cinnamon-barred flanks. Females are similar but browner.
A habitat study of Scytalopus robbinsi in southwestern Ecuador reports use of montane cloud forest, with older secondary forest preferred.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.