[2] However, during the twentieth century it was treated by most authors as a subspecies of what was then the rufous antpitta (G. rufula sensu lato).

[1] 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".

Adults have a mostly dark reddish yellow-brown crown, upperparts, wings, and tail with lighter edges on the flight feathers.

Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a blackish bill with a paler base, and dusky bluish or purplish gray legs and feet.

They eat arthropods and other invertebrates captured while running or hopping on the forest floor and stopping to find prey by flipping aside leaf litter and probing the soil.

The Cajamarca antpitta's long song is "a relatively fast series of clear, slightly descending notes at ca.

Its short song is "a slow series of 5-6 whistled notes, either even or slightly downslurred in pitch at ca.