This diving duck lives in the Peruvian Andes. Males have a reddish-brown body and blue bill, while females are dark brown.
Males have a reddish-brown body, black head, blue bill, and stiff tail that is often held upright. Females are finely barred dark brown, with lighter throat and sides of the head.
It repeatedly dives in open water to find aquatic invertebrates and plant seeds or other plant matter on the bottom.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.