Rhipidomys similis is a rodent known from the southwestern Colombian Andes. Records include cloud forest on both slopes of the Western Cordillera.
The back is reddish brown to yellowish rufous, lined with black. The belly hairs have dark grey bases and cream or pale orange tips. The tail ends in a pencil of black hairs.
Specimens in the Western Cordillera were collected in cloud forest on both eastern and western slopes. The western slope is cooler and moister, with cloud forest occurring at different elevations on the two sides.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.