Ochre-breasted Pipit

The ochre-breasted pipit is 13.5 to 15 cm (5.3 to 5.9 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a blackish brown head with a yellow-buff supercilium, a thin dark "moustache", and a black spot on the cheek. Their upperparts and wings are mostly blackish brown with bright buff or golden ochraceous-yellow feather edges that give a bold streaked appearance. Their rump is more rufous and less streaked than their back. Their tail's inner three pairs of feathers are dark brown. The next pair outward are medium brown with white tips, the next brownish white with a large dark brown wedge on the inner web, and the outermost pair like the previous with a smaller brown mark. Their throat is creamy, their breast golden-buff to orange with brown streaks, their flanks rufous-buff with brown streaks, and their belly unstreaked buffy white. They have a dark iris, a brown maxilla, a mostly pale mandible, and yellow-brown to reddish brown legs and feet.

The ochre-breasted pipit has a highly fragmented distribution. It is found in Brazil intermittently from central Minas Gerais south to central Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Paraguay, in northern and central Uruguay, and in northeastern Argentina's Corrientes Province. It inhabits a variety of landscapes, most of which are treeless. These include campo grassland, pastures, fields, and other open areas. In some areas it appears to favor regenerating burned or lightly grazed areas. It has been recorded in young Eucalyptus plantations during the breeding season. In elevation it mostly is found below 900 m (3,000 ft) but occurs locally higher in Brazil.

The ochre-breasted pipit's diet has not been studied but is known to include small invertebrates. It forages on the ground.