Silvered Antbird

The silvered antbird is 14 to 16 cm (5.5 to 6.3 in) long and weighs 21 to 27 g (0.74 to 0.95 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies S. n. naevia have a dark gray crown, nape, and upperparts. Their wings and tail are blackish gray with white tips on the wing coverts. Their face is mostly dark gray with a paler gray supercilium. Their underparts are mostly white with gray scalloping that is lightest on the throat. Their flanks, crissum, and underwing coverts are gray. Adult females have the same pattern as males, but are grayish brown, whereas males are gray and have cinnamon tips on the wing coverts. Subadult males look like adult females. Males of subspecies S. n. argentata have almost white underparts with faint light gray mottling on the breast and flanks and a paler gray crissum than the nominate. Females have grayer upperparts than the nominate; their underparts vary from white with buffy brown sides and vent area to deep buff with browner sides and vent. S. n. toddi is intermediate between the nominate and argentata. S. n. diaphora males have small white dots, rather than white tips, on their wing coverts, and mostly gray underparts with a few thin white streaks on the breast. Females have ochraceous tawny underparts with little to no mottling.

The subspecies of the silvered antbird are found thus:

S. n. naevia: Trinidad, eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and northeastern Brazil, mostly south of the Amazon S. n. diaphora: drainage of the lower Rio Caura in Venezuela's Bolívar state S. n. argentata: southeastern Colombia and southern Venezuela south through eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, and western Amazonian Brazil into northwestern and eastern Bolivia S. n. toddi: south-central Amazonian Brazil south of the Amazon from the Rio Madeira and Teles Pires to the Rio Tocantins The silvered antbird inhabits the floor and understorey of tropical evergreen forest, primarily várzea and igapó, along streams, terra firme and in swampy areas within the forest. It favors areas with vine tangles, branches, and vegetation that overhang the water's edge. In Trinidad and Suriname, it also occurs in mangrove swamps, and Ecuador and Peru, found in Mauritia flexuosa palm swamps. In elevation, it reaches 500 m (1,600 ft) in Venezuela and Colombia, 450 m (1,500 ft) in Ecuador, and 600 m (2,000 ft) in Peru.

The silvered antbird feeds primarily on a variety of insects and spiders. It forages as individuals, pairs, and small family groups, mostly within about 1 m (3 ft) of the ground and seldom with mixed-species feeding flocks. They hop along the ground and among low branches, and take prey mostly by picking from leaf litter and reaching up to leaves and twigs. They also pick prey from the water's surface while perched above it. They rarely attend army ant swarms, which are rare in their often-flooded habitat.