Gray-hooded Attila

The grey-hooded attila is 20 to 21 cm (7.9 to 8.3 in) long and weighs 36.5 to 51.5 g (1.3 to 1.8 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a gray head and nape. Their upperparts are mostly deep rufous with a paler cinnamon-rufous rump and tail. Their wings are mostly deep rufous with blackish primaries. Their chin is gray with white streaks. Their breast is rufous and their belly a paler yellowish rufous. Subspecies A. r. hellmayri has a whitish chin and rufous throat. Adults of both subspecies have a dark iris, a longish bill with a dark maxilla and a whitish to grayish mandible, and gray legs and feet. Juveniles have an all-black bill.

The grey-hooded attila is found in eastern and southeastern Brazil. Subspecies A. r. hellmayri is the more northerly of the two. It is found in central and southern Bahia. The nominate subspecies is found from Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo south to northeastern Rio Grande do Sul. The species inhabits humid forest and scrublands from sea level to 1,500 m (4,900 ft).

The grey-hooded attila primarily feeds on large arthropods and also includes fruit in its diet. It typically forages singly or in pairs and sometimes joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It forages at all levels on the forest including on the ground. It perches quietly and takes prey and fruit from foliage and branches while briefly hovering after a short sally.