[1][4] 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 slate gray bill, and blue-gray legs and feet.

[3][4] The Chachapoyas antpitta is found on the eastern slope of the Peruvian Andes in the departments of Amazonas, San Martín and Huánuco.

However, it appears to favor the floor and understory in the interior and edges of humid montane forest heavy with moss and epiphytes and with much Chusquea bamboo.

It runs or hops on the forest floor and stops to find prey by flipping aside leaf litter and probing the soil.

"Habitat within the range of the Chachapoyas Antpitta is relatively intact, on the whole, but at a local scale many portions have been severely impacted by grazing, burning, and crop cultivation".