Adults have a dull grayish brown face with a pale supercilium and a darker line behind the eye.

Juveniles have pale tips on the crown feathers and fainter streaks on the breast than adults.

It shares part of its range with the common miner but differs in its much shorter bill and the absence of any rufous in the flight feathers.

In the non-breeding season some move north in western Argentina as far as Mendoza Province.

[3][4] The short-billed miner inhabits the Patagonian Steppe, a landscape of barren plains with sparse grasses and scattered shrubs.

[3][4] The short-billed miner is a year-round resident on Tierra del Fuego and the southern mainland.

[3] The short-billed miner breeds in the austral summer, roughly including November to January.

Its "[h]abitat occupied appears to be reasonably safe from anthropogenic disturbances, with the exception of overgrazing.