It was named in honor of Maria Koepcke, a German ornithologist who worked extensively in Peru.

The nominate subspecies has a whitish gray facial disc with darker speckles and a blackish rim.

The tail is dark brown with narrow ochre bars and small speckles.

The underparts are grayish white and have wide dark brown streaks and irregular bars.

The upper breast has a pale brownish ochre wash. M. k. hockingi is similar to the nominate but grayer, and the markings on its underparts are less apparent.

An aggressive song is "a series of quieter short hoots rising and falling in pitch".

The species appears to adapt well to highly degraded habitat as long as some trees remain for nesting and roosting.