The adults have a bright orange-brown crown; chestnut nape, back, and rump; and a blackish tail with buff-white bars.

They have a black-over-white supercilium and the rest of the face is streaked and spotted black and white.

[3] The riverside wren is found along the Pacific slope from Costa Rica's Gulf of Nicoya into western Panama.

It inhabits dense vegetation, preferably along watercourses, swampy edges of woodlands, or on steep precipices.

Its nest is globular made of fine fibers; it drapes over a branch to form two chambers with an entrance hole in the outer one.