The streaked xenops has the head, mantle, and underparts streaked with buff. It has a buffy supercilium and white malar stripe. The bill is stubby with a heavily upturned mandible. The wing is blackish with a rufous middle band readily seen when the bird flies. The tail is rufous with black feathers towards the outer edges. It creeps on multiple directions on trunks and limbs in the canopy of the forest. It is similar to the slender-billed xenops but is distinguished by having a thicker bill with an upturned mandible, and by foraging higher in the canopy. These species are likely to overlap in southeast Peru.