Adults have neutral grey heads, brown necks, brown-sepia striped backs, and grey-white bellies, breasts, and throats.

[2] Scytalopus, the genus to which the Perijá tapaculo belongs, has an abundance of similar species, many of which are difficult to classify through appearance.

[2] Some individual species from other genera are like Scytalopus in size and plumage, but have different behaviour and morphological features.

[4] In September 2006, biologists Juan Pablo López and Alexander Cortés Diago found two specimens in a cloud forest at an altitude of 2,450 m (8,000 ft) on the western side of the Serranía del Perijá in Colombia, but the information collected was insufficient to identify a new species.

New vocal, morphological, genetic, and ecological studies of these specimens confirmed that they constituted a new species, Scytalopus perijanus,[3] first described by Jorge Enrique Avendaño et al. on 11 March 2015[5] following a three-year expedition,[6] and accepted by the South American Classification Committee.

[7] The Latin word perijanus refers to the Serranía del Perijá mountain range,[8] and the genus name Scytalopus comes from the Greek skutale (stick) and pous (foot).

[10] The Perijá tapaculo is a small bird, 10 to 12 cm (3.9 to 4.7 in) in length with an average mass of 17 to 18 grams (about 0.6 oz).

Male specimens are distinguished by having less sharp brown spots on their napes, and the bottom of their breasts are mixed with a pale buff colour.

[14] The call and song differ from those of most other species in the genus, and the latter is composed of two short churrs repeating up to 65 times at 0.5 to 3 second intervals.

[11] The diet of the species is little known, but studies of the stomach contents of seven specimens suggested that they fed exclusively on insects.

[17] The Perijá tapaculo lives in and on the edges of humid rainforests, as well as in elfin forests and amongst woody páramo shrubs in high-mountain grassland areas, especially at altitudes of 2,500–3,000 m (8,200–9,800 ft).

[1] The authors believe that to protect the Perijá tapaculo, conservation measures on the Colombian side of the border should be implemented, as the forests of the Serranía del Perijá have been largely destroyed on the Colombian side by logging activities and forest clearance for agriculture.

[20] The Colombian section of the Serranía del Perijá is dangerous for scientific excursions due to the presence of the FARC guerrilla group in the region.