Very small active bird of the dense understory in humid forests. Short-tailed with a cinnamon head, back, and vent, and a gray face and belly. Males have black throats stippled with white and black wing coverts. Females have larger white spots on the throat and brown wing coverts. Occasionally joins mixed-species flocks. The song is a loud and rather nasal series of 6–7 repetitions of “tzeet-tzeet-tzeet.”