[2] Starting in 1979 the bicolored antpitta was treated as having two subspecies, the nominate G. r. rufocinerea (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1879) and G. r. romeroana (Hernández-Camacho & Rodríguez-M, 1979).

[4] In 2023 the Clements taxonomy disallowed romeroana and returned the bicolored antpitta to monotypic status; the International Ornithological Committee followed suit in 2024.

Grallaria antpittas are a "wonderful group of plump and round antbirds whose feathers are often fluffed up...they have stout bills [and] very short tails".

[11][10][12] The bicolored antpitta was long thought to be endemic to Colombia but in 1999 its range was discovered to extend slightly into extreme northern Ecuador's Sucumbíos Province.

It is found in the temperate zone, where it primarily inhabits the floor and understory of humid montane cloudforest as high as treeline.

[11] A male bicolored antpitta in breeding condition captured in June indicates that its season includes that month.

Much forest in the area has long been cleared primarily for coffee plantations, potatoes, beans and cattle-grazing, leaving scattered fragments of mature secondary forest and natural vegetation...The species nevertheless shows some tolerance of habitat degradation and disturbance and may recolonise areas from where it had previously disappeared.