Cinnamon-bellied Ground-Tyrant

The cinnamon-bellied ground tyrant is 16.5 to 18 cm (6.5 to 7.1 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a black forecrown and a bright rufous-chestnut mid- and hindcrown. Their face, nape, and upperparts are dusky gray or brownish gray. Their wings are dusky with pale white edges on the flight feathers. Their tail is black with whitish edges on the outer webs of the outermost feathers. Their throat is whitish, their breast grayish buff, and their belly cinnamon-rufous or rufous-buff that is darker on the flanks and vent area. They have a dark iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet. Juveniles have a paler crown and belly than adults with small blackish tips on the feathers, buff edges on the wings, and faint mottling on the breast.

The cinnamon-bellied ground tyrant is found from Tierra del Fuego and southernmost mainland South America north along the Andes through eastern Chile, western Argentina, and southern and western Bolivia into the Lake Titicaca basin in southern Peru and only very rarely further north. It inhabits moist areas with short grass, typically on hillsides with scattered bushes and rocky outcrops, rocky canyons with patches of grass, and pastures. In the non-breeding season it also frequents cushion plant bogs and lakeshores. It breeds at elevations between sea level and 500 m (1,600 ft) but winters in Peru between 3,800 and 4,100 m (12,500 and 13,500 ft). It has been documented as a vagrant in Brazil, far outside its normal range.

The cinnamon-bellied ground tyrant feeds on insects. It is almost wholly terrestrial but will perch on rocks. It runs and hops along the ground, stopping to stand erect before grabbing prey, or drops on it from a rock. In the breeding season it mostly forages by itself or in pairs but is regularly in flocks outside that season.