[2][7] 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.

The center of their belly is whitish and their flanks are a reddish yellow-brown whose intensity is between those of the upperparts and breast.

Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a black bill, and light blue-gray legs and feet.

It is thought to favor the floor and understory 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.

The habitat in its range "is relatively intact, on the whole, but at a local scale many portions have been severely impacted by grazing, burning, and crop cultivation".