[2] The members of genus Anairetes are known commonly as tit-tyrants because their active foraging behavior and crests are reminiscent of the true tits in the family Paridae.

[2] Some twentieth century authors treated it and the pied-crested tit-tyrant (A. reguloides) as conspecific but by about 1990 this had been discarded.

Adult males have a dramatic black crest formed by elongated feathers of the central crown.

They have a dark brown iris, a bright orange bill with a blackish tip, and black legs and feet.

Juveniles have a shorter crest than adult females, a dusky crown, blackish and pale olivaceous streaks on the back, dirty white underparts with some dark brown streaks on the breast, and a dark bill with a pinkish base to the mandible.

In Peru it also occurs in the upper Marañón River valley (hence its alternate English name) and very locally on the eastern Andean slope in Huánuco Department.

It is an active feeder, taking prey mostly by gleaning from leaves and twigs while perched and making short upward flights to hover-glean.

[5][6][7] The black-crested tit-tyrant's breeding season is believed to include June and July.