Cochabamba Mountain-Finch

The Cochabamba mountain finch is 17 to 18 cm (6.7 to 7.1 in) long. It is rather stocky and heavy and has a long tail. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a wide orange-rufous forehead that extends as a supercilium past the eye, an orange-rufous crescent under the eye, and an otherwise dark gray head. Their upperparts, tail, and wings are dark gray. Their throat and underparts are orange-rufous that is slightly lighter on the belly. They have a deep brown iris and dusky legs. Their maxilla is blackish and their mandible a paler blue-gray. Juveniles have grayish brown upperparts, a dusky-streaked buff throat and breast, and a buffy belly with thinner dusky streaks.

The Cochabamba mountain finch is found disjunctly in central and south-central Bolivia's Cochabamba, northern Potosí, and Chuquisaca departments. It inhabits a variety of landscapes in humid valleys between ranges of the Andes. These include canyons and slopes of somewhat open scrublands to very dense scrub, agricultural land that retains some native shrubs, and Polylepis and alder (Alnus) woodlands. In elevation it ranges between 2,700 and 4,200 m (8,900 and 13,800 ft) but is mostly found between 3,000 and 3,800 m (9,800 and 12,500 ft).

The Cochabamba mountain finch's diet is not known. It forages on the ground and not far above in it shrubs.