[2][3][4][5] To further complicate matters, all five of these taxa have plumage, morphological, vocal, behavioral, and nest structure characteristics that may better place them in the thornbird genus Phacellodomus rather than Asthenes.

Adults of the nominate subspecies have a light gray supercilium and an indistinct brownish line behind the eye in an otherwise dull buff face.

Their iris is dark brown to light gray, their maxilla black or dark gray, their mandible blackish (often with a pinkish base), and their legs and feet blue-gray to black.

Juveniles have an entirely white throat and faint dusky bars or mottling on the breast and belly.

Subspecies A. d. consobrina is very like the nominate, but its primaries are entirely dark and contrast with the chestnut of the secondaries.

[7][8] The nominate subspecies of the rusty-vented canastero is found in the Andes from Cochabamba Department in central Bolivia south into northwestern Argentina as far as Mendoza Province.

Subspecies A. d. consobrina is found in the Andes of southwestern Bolivia's La Paz, Oruro, and Potosí departments.

It forages on the ground and in low woody vegetation, usually singly or in pairs, and gleaning for its prey.

The rusty-vented canastero's song "may begin with a series of introductory notes, but these apparently are not always given.