Studies of DNA sequences in the early 2000s resulted in its being moved to its present family.

The chin, throat, sides, and flanks are white; the chest, lower breast, belly, and vent area are vermilion.

It is found year-round from Sinaloa south to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and from there into interior Chiapas and possible into northern Guatemala, though there are no records there.

Its nest is a cup made of Spanish moss and other fibers lined with finer material.

Females alone incubated the nests but both sexes provided food to nestlings.

[4] The red-breasted chat's song is a repeated "variable, fairly sweet warble" [1].

[1] However, it occurs in only two protected areas, and less than 20% of the original forest in its range remains intact.