[7] There are distinct plumage and vocal variations among the subspecies of the ruddy foliage-gleaner, suggesting that more than one species is involved.

Adults of the nominate subspecies C. r. rubiginosus have a dark reddish brown face with slightly paler lores, faint brighter markings on the ear coverts, and a ring of bare blue skin around the eye.

Their crown is very dark brown with a reddish tone and slightly darker scallop markings.

In Mexico and Central America it inhabits humid evergreen, pine-evergreen, and pine-oak forests, cloudforest, and coffee plantations, mainly between 500 and 2,500 m (1,600 and 8,200 ft) of elevation.

In the Andes it inhabits lowland, foothill, and lower montane evergreen forest up to about 1,500 m (4,900 ft).

In the Guianas and northern Brazil it inhabits lowland tropical forest from near sea level to about 1,300 m (4,300 ft).

[9][11][12][13][14][15][16] The ruddy foliage-gleaner is a year-round resident in most of its range though some populations in Mexico might make elevational changes with the seasons.

It usually gleans its prey from dead leaves, pecks it from decaying branches, and sometimes flips around leaf litter on the ground.

The known nests were cups of soft fibers in a chamber at the end of a tunnel in an earthen bank.

It has an extremely large range and an estimated population of at least 500,000 mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing.