This ground-dwelling bird occurs in the highlands of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. It searches on or near the ground for insects, spiders, and seeds.
In the nominate subspecies from central Costa Rica, most of the head is black, with whitish marks by the bill, on the ear coverts, and as a broken ring around the eye. The black throat and breast patches may be separated by a narrow grey area; the belly is white and the undertail coverts orange.
It uses montane evergreen cloud forest and edges, damp ravines, scrub, second growth, coffee plantations, and large gardens. It forages on or near the ground for insects, spiders, arthropods, and seeds.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.