The adult male's crown is purplish-blue, and it is electric blue on the rest of its upperparts that fades from darker to lighter towards the tail.

Its chin is grayish, the throat and chest blue, and the belly and vent area salmon pink.

[3] The rose-bellied bunting's core range is a narrow strip along the Pacific slope of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca and western Chiapas.

The nests were open cups of dead leaves and bark lined with finer material; they were placed in crotches of small saplings.

[3] The IUCN has assessed the rose-bellied bunting as Near Threatened "because it has a small range, which may be in decline owing to habitat degradation and infrastructure development.