Rio de Janeiro Antbird

The Rio de Janeiro antbird is 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long. Adult males are mostly gray, with darker upperparts and paler underparts. They have a white patch between their scapulars, a hidden white patch under the scapulars, and white tips on their wing coverts. Their tail is blackish gray with narrow white tips on the feathers. Their wings have a brown tinge. Females have olive-brown upperparts with a whitish area around their eye, a minimal white interscapular patch, and a grayer rump. Their wings are darker than their back. Their tail is pale olivaceous brown. Their throat and underparts are bright ochraceous tawny.

The Rio de Janeiro antbird is found in southeastern Brazil from southeastern Bahia south through eastern Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo into Rio de Janeiro state. It inhabits the dense understorey to mid-storey of secondary evergreen forest and particularly favors areas with abundant tangles of vines. In elevation it occurs from near sea level to about 950 m (3,100 ft).

The Rio de Janeiro antbird's diet has not been detailed but is known to be primarily insects; it probably also includes spiders. Individuals, pairs, and family groups usually forage between about 1 and 6 m (3 and 20 ft) above the ground. They hop through vine tangles and other dense vegetation and usually take prey by gleaning and lunging from a perch, and also with short flutter-flights. They occasionally briefly join mixed-species feeding flocks that pass through their territory but are not known to follow army ants.