Glossy-backed Becard

The glossy-backed becard is about 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long and weighs about 20 g (0.71 oz). Adult males are glossy black with a slight bluish sheen on most of their head and on their upperparts, wings, and tail. Their crown sometimes appears scaly and they have some white at the base of the scapulars that is seldom visible. Their throat and underparts are pure white. Adult females' crowns are blackish with wide chestnut-brown feather tips. They have a pale line above the lores on an otherwise pale gray face. Their nape and upper back are pale gray, their lower back and rump white, and their uppertail coverts white with a buffy tinge. Their wings are blackish with wide cinnamon-brown edges on the coverts and inner flight feathers. Their tail is blackish with wide whitish to buffy tips on the outermost feathers. Their throat and underparts are white. Both sexes have a dark iris, a blackish bill, and dark legs and feet.

The glossy-backed becard's core range is mostly north of the Amazon river. In Brazil it extends from the lower Negro River east to near the Tapajos River and also extends south of the Amazon along the Urucu River. From Brazil its range sweeps northeasterly to the Atlantic in Suriname, French Guiana, and Brazil's Amapá state. There are also scattered records in Guyana, Venezuela, and further south in Brazil. The glossy-backed becard inhabits the canopy and subcanopy of humid forest and also trees in clearings and nearby savanna. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 300 m (1,000 ft).

The glossy-backed becard feeds mostly on insects and includes some fruit in its diet. It usually forages in pairs, though not close together, and gleans food while hopping along branches or making short flights to briefly hover.