It inhabits savannah with scattered bushes and cerrado and is the only elaenia that is so tied to savannah vegetation.

Visual points are the generally raised crown without any white, the olive-green tinge to the back, the narrow pale eye-ring, the two white wing-bars and the white edging to the wing feathers. The throat is whitish becoming grey on the breast and pale yellow on the belly.

There is an illustration in Ridgely & Tudor, Volume 2, Plate 31.