It is found in Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.

The upper parts are reddish-brown with some barring on the wings, and the underparts are a similar colour, often with darker scaling.

The rufous mourner (Rhytipterna holerythra) has similar colouring but has a differently-shaped head, a narrower-based beak (it is an insect-eater) and lacks the breast and wing markings.

[3] Another bird with which it could be confused is the rufous piha (Lipaugus unirufus), but that has a broader-based beak as befits an omnivorous diet, and more uniform colouring, with no yellow pectoral tuft.

[5] The speckled mourner is a generally uncommon species, with Panama probably being the country where it is most common; it was at one time described as "one of the scarcest of Middle American birds", suggesting that its scarcity is not as a result of recent deforestation.