[2] It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and as a vagrant on the Falkland Islands.

Following the recognition of the three-way split that began in about 2009, C. fuscus was renamed to the present buff-winged cinclodes to avoid confusion with the previous much more complex species.

[3] It inhabits a variety of open habitats, most of them grassy such as páramo, puna, and temperate grasslands.

Much of the populations in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia move north after the breeding season, as apparently do some from the year-round range.

In the austral winter they are found in northern Argentina, southeastern Paraguay, much of Uruguay, and as far north in Brazil as Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina states.

It probes and gleans from wet and dry ground, rocks, beach debris, grass, dung, and shallow water.

The buff-winged cinclodes' song is "a short, fast, dry trill, 't-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-t', lasting c. 2 seconds, often introduced by call notes", and can be sung from the ground, from a rock, and in flight.

In much of its range "its habitats are subject to, at most, only minimal anthropogenic disturbance; probably benefits from effects of grazing".