This large sparrow-family bird lives in the highlands of central and southern Mexico. It is marked by a rufous crown, black face and breast band, white throat, and olive back. It searches through leaf litter and low vegetation.
It has a rufous crown, black face and breast band, white throat, and olive-green upperparts. A thin white line above the eye can be faint or absent.
It forages on the ground and in low cover, searching leaf litter for seeds and small invertebrates.
It occurs in highland pine-oak and conifer forests and dense scrub along wooded edges.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.