The legs are bright yellow and the inner webs of its primaries are uniformly dark, unlike in the closely related spotted nothura.

Like other tinamous, the white-bellied nothura eats fruit off the ground or low-lying bushes.

They also eat small amounts of invertebrates, flower buds, tender leaves, seeds, and roots.

[4] The white-bellied nothura prefers dry shrubland regions up to 500 m (1,600 ft) in altitude.

[1] This species is native to northeastern and central Brazil, eastern Bolivia and Paraguay.