The adult has a distinctive head pattern, with a yellow-edged chestnut crown and nape, black forehead and head sides, white spots in the centre and each side of the forehead, and a white throat which is often puffed up when the bird is excited.

Young birds have a sooty-brown cap, sooty face and olive-brown upperparts, throat and breast.

The nest, built by the female, is a large cup of plant material placed less than 2.5 m up in a shrub or small tree in dense scrub or a ravine.

The typical clutch is two glossy, unmarked white or pale blue eggs,[2] which are incubated by the female alone for 12–14 days before hatching.

The chestnut-capped brushfinch feeds on insects and spiders extracted from the leaf litter with its bill, and will also pick berries and invertebrate prey from low bushes.