Willis's paper treats the Colombian and Venezuelan population as Chamaeza turdina. Its appearance is described for that population, while a separate species account records ground-foraging for invertebrates in forest.
In the northern population that Willis treated as this species, the upperparts are rufous, the throat is spotted, the belly has three stripes, and the undertail coverts are barred.
It is recorded as a terrestrial forest bird that searches the ground for invertebrates.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.