This large sparrow occurs in the Austral Yungas of northwestern Argentina. It uses high-elevation montane scrub, separated from the lowland Chaco scrub used by the related Chaco Sparrow.
It is large and heavy, with a broad black crescent in front of and around the eye and chestnut shoulder and head stripes.
The paper restricts it to higher-elevation montane scrub and treats it as a year-round resident of the Austral Yungas.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.