[2][4] However, BirdLife International (BLI) retains C. modestus as "plain wren" with elutus as a subspecies of it rather than as a full species.

Adults have a dark gray-brown crown, a rufous-brown back, an orange-rufous rump, and a rufescent brown tail with narrow darker bars.

[6] Cabanis's wren is found from the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas south through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua to the Pacific side of central Costa Rica.

It inhabits both dry and humid areas, occurring in a variety of surroundings including forest edges, second growth, and gardens.

[6] Cabanis's wren usually forages in pairs in low dense vegetation, though it occasionally will hunt higher in trees.