Stout-billed cinclodes lives at high altitudes, on páramo and on wetlands between 3,300 and 5,000 meters, in the Colombian and Ecuadorian Andes. In size, 20.5 cm long, it resembles a European starling. Like several other cinclodes, it has a curved bill, but in this species the bill is also unusually large. A white eyebrow line also belongs to the characteristics. It nests in burrows in banks, much like Sand martins. This individual perched on a rock beside a small, murmuring brook on the páramo.