This finch inhabits open slopes, grass steppe, and scrub in northwestern Patagonia and the Andes. It eats seeds and is also recorded around rocky ground.
In the SIB diagnosis, males have a blue-gray head, wings, and tail, a yellow breast and belly, and an olive back. Females have gray head, wings, and tail, a dark-streaked crown, a pale throat, and cinnamon-toned underparts.
It eats seeds and forages on the ground. Birds occur alone or in small groups and perch on grasses, shrubs, and sometimes fence posts. The cited account records nests in shrubs, among ground stones, and in rock crevices.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.