Adults of the nominate subspecies have a unique henna (orange-rufous) head, neck, wings, and tail.

The other is from far southern Guayas and Auzuay provinces south through El Oro and Loja into Peru's extreme northwestern Department of Tumbes.

The species inhabits deciduous and semihumid forests and woodlands, mostly on the lower slopes of the west side of the Andes.

[5] The henna-hooded foliage-gleaner's diet has not been studied but appears to be terrestrial invertebrates; isopods are a known component.

[6] Both adults excavate a burrow in a shaded earthen bank and build a nest of rootlets and other fibers in a chamber at its end.

The henna-hooded foliage-gleaner's song is far-carrying, "a persistent, staccato churring, 'kree-kruh-kruh-kruh-kruh-kruh-kruh-kurr' with [an] odd, mechanical-sounding quality".

"The most severe threat to the species is the loss and degradation of its habitat...[e]ven protected areas are affected by illegal settlement and deforestation, livestock-grazing and habitat clearance by people seeking land rights".