Birds in the genus Cinclodes are habitat specialists, with most restricted to the highlands of South America. The recently described Cipo Cinclodes (C. espinhacensis) is isolated in the southern Espinhaço Range of Brazil and is considered Endangered in Brazil and Near Threatened by the IUCN, but as a subspecies of Long‐tailed Cinclodes (C. pabsti). We examined the population and spatial ecology of Cipo Cinclodes at two geographic scales to improve our understanding of their basic biology and conservation status. We monitored 30 birds at Serra do Breu and found relatively large home ranges (mean = 9.3 ha), a density of paired adults of 0.09/ha, a male‐skewed adult sex ratio (males/total adults = 0.57) due to territories occupied by unpaired males, and long‐term site fidelity. Cipo Cinclodes used all habitat types available in our study area, including rocky outcrops, grasslands, and riparian areas, but habitat selection analyses revealed the importance of riparian areas for foraging and rocky outcrops for nesting. At the species distribution scale, we compiled known and novel recorded occurrence points and used them to calculate the extent of occurrence (EOO) and the area of occupancy (AOO). We used a Maxent species distribution model to generate a binary map to estimate upper limits for EOO (EOO around the model predicted area) and AOO (comprised by the model predicted area within the EOO). We obtained 41 locations, resulting in an EOO of 890.7 km2 (up to 1748.7 km2) and an AOO of 100 km2 (up to 327.5 km2). The global population is estimated to be between 880 and 2882 birds, which is concerning because small populations are at risk of extinction due to demographic stochasticity, genetic drift, and the interaction of these factors. As such, our results support the designation of Cipo Cinclodes as Endangered on the Brazilian red list.