This small rail lives in wet grass and marshes. It has brown upperparts, a gray head and breast, and pale bars on the flanks. It moves through grass and has records in Ecuador and nearby Amazonian regions.
The nape, back of the neck, and upper back are rufous; the rest of the upperparts are brown. The sides of the head, neck, and breast are gray, while the flanks and vent are black with whitish bars. The legs are greenish.
It lives in wet grass around marshes, flooded rice fields, riverbanks, and lake edges. By day it walks among vegetation and takes invertebrates from the ground or shallow wetland habitats.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.