Native to South America, it is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela, where it inhabits successional vegetation, cerrado, riparian forest, shrub, brush, and open woodland.

Males of the species have sandy-gray upperparts, cinnamon to buff underparts, white on the center of the lower breast, belly, and tail, and rufous-orange and yellow heads.

The orange-headed tanager was originally described in 1837 as Nemosia sordida by the French ornithologists Frédéric de Lafresnaye and Alcide d'Orbigny on the basis of specimens from Bolivia.

[4] The name of the genus, Thlypopsis, is from the Ancient Greek thlupis, a word for an unknown species of small bird, and opsis, meaning appearance.

Males of the nominate subspecies have rufous-orange crowns and sides of the head, becoming bright yellow on the lores, ocular region (area surrounding eye), and throat.

[8] The orange-headed tanager is native to South America, where it is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.

In northwestern Argentina, it inhabits scrub, brush, and the edges of drier open woodland, and is seldom observed in uninterrupted forest.

The orange-headed tanager is an omnivorous species, having been recorded feeding on orthopterans (grasshoppers, crickets, and locusts), beetles, flies, spiders, fruit, and seeds.

It forages in an active, New World warbler-like manner, gleaning insects from foliage with rapid hops, or less commonly hovering or sallying to catch prey in the air.