The editors of the latter recognized that the name likely was a junior synonym,[1] but others have questioned the validity of the first description,[2][3] and various authorities, including the International Ornithological Congress, have adopted G. urraoensis.

The new species was discovered during banding sessions in September 2007[4] and February and March 2008 when Diego Carantón, then working as a researcher for a Colombian NGO, Fundación ProAves de Colombia, caught an unfamiliar Grallaria antpitta.

Since 2008 many ornithologists and birders have seen, photographed, recorded and studied the new bird at the reserve, where a family party is seen daily at a feeding station alongside chestnut-naped antpittas.

[5] Their holotype comprises 14 feathers, taken from the wing, tail and body of a living bird which was banded, photographed, sound-recorded and measured in the field before being released, on 11 January 2010.

[7][8] According to Fundación ProAves these specimens were collected without their knowledge and without the necessary permit from the local government, and consequently neither was used as a holotype in their description, but one could possibly be designated as a neotype if the legal status was resolved.

[9] One of the specimens was used as a holotype in the second description of the species, by Diego Carantón-Ayala and Katherine Certuche-Cubillos, where they coined the name Grallaria urraoensis.

It is evidently most closely related to the brown-banded antpitta, G. milleri, because of similarities in voice and measurements and its generally plain plumage.

The genus name Grallaria is derived from the Latin word grallae, meaning "stilts", referring to the bird's relatively long legs.

A captured juvenile looked scaled, with patches of chestnut-edged black down intermixed with grey feathers on much of its body, and a buff belly.

[4][5] The known distribution of the bird is limited to the Urrao municipality in and near the Colibrí del Sol Bird Reserve, a 28.52 square kilometres (11.01 sq mi) reserve on the south-eastern slope of the Páramo del Sol massif, at the northern end of the Cordillera Occidental of Colombia, and some 55 kilometres (34 mi) west of Medellín, Colombia's second largest city.

There the bird is restricted to upper montane cloud forest dominated by Colombian oak, at an altitude of 2,600 to 3,300 metres (8,500 to 10,800 ft) above sea level, where most territories contain Chusquea bamboo thickets.

[4][5][14] The species exhibits behaviour typical of other members of its genus; it is a shy, terrestrial forager for insects (especially beetles)[4] in the leaf-litter within the forest understorey.

It ascends to higher perches (up to 1.5 m above the ground)[5] to sing, and is most active and vocal in the hours following dawn and prior to dusk.

[4] The bird has a very restricted known range, limited to the Colibrí del Sol reserve and its immediate vicinity, while previous surveys in similar habitat in the region have failed to record the species.

Staff members of Fundación ProAves went to the Colibrí del Sol reserve and in January 2010 caught a bird whose feathers they collected and used as the basis of their publication without Carantón (May 2010).

It was accompanied by an editorial describing Stiles's and Cadena's involvement with Carantón and Certuche's paper starting shortly after Fundación ProAves found out about the work.

[17] The editorial adds a reason that Carantón's collection of specimens may have been lawful, and notes that in any case, none of the legal accusations against him had been decided by a court.

After The Condor rejected Carantón and Certuche's manuscript, they submitted it to Ornitología Colombiana, which decided to publish it despite the previous description of the species.

[3] Because of these problems and other issues, it has been argued that Barrera and Bartels failed to comply with minimum requirements stipulated in the ICZN and thus the name fenwickorum is not available (i.e. not valid).

)[2] However, in 2018, the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature rejected a petition to suppress the fenwickorum name, and ruled, in ICZN Opinion 2414, that "The available specific name Grallaria fenwickorum Barrera & Bartels in Barrera, Bartels & Fundación ProAves de Colombia, 2010 remains valid for the species of antpitta involved.