This miner walks over rocky high-altitude grasslands in the Andes, searching for food on the ground. It is recorded at 3,000–4,000 m in northwestern Argentina.
About 18.5 cm long, it has a brown back and a dark mottled crown. The underside is ochre with brown marks on the sides of the neck and chest; the wings and tail are cinnamon-brown.
It searches the ground for small invertebrates in rocky highland grasslands, sometimes near water or damp ground. Males sing in display flights with a long series of pip notes.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.