Some authors considered all of those taxa to be conspecific but the genetic data confirm they are separate species.

Their tail is a brighter rufescent brown; it is long and deeply forked with few barbs at the feather ends.

It inhabits elfin forest at the tree line ecotone, usually areas with a dense understory of Chusquea bamboo.

The nest is a domed mass with a side entrance, constructed of moss and a few twigs and placed on a clump of grass.

Their song, sung by both sexes, is "a short, rapid high-pitched series of spluttering notes, pee-peep-p-p-p-t-t-tii...that accelerates and increases in volume before fading at the end".

It has a large but narrow range and an unknown population size that is believed to be stable.

It has probably always had a relatively small population, but it may be susceptible to the impacts of grazing and burning in its Andean timberline habitat.