A foliage-gleaner ranging from Central America to the western Andes, where it searches branches and leaves for small invertebrates.
In the South American subspecies temporalis, the throat feathers form a scale-like pattern. Pale markings surround the eye.
It uses primary and secondary forest, joins mixed-species flocks and searches middle-level foliage for invertebrates.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.