Rufous-breasted Leaftosser

The rufous-breasted leaftosser is one of the larger members of genus Sclerurus. It is 17.5 to 20.1 cm (6.9 to 7.9 in) long and weighs 30 to 41 g (1.1 to 1.4 oz). The sexes are alike. The nominate subspecies has a dark brownish face with a somewhat grizzled appearance. Its crown is very dark brown with blackish scalloping. Its back is rich dark brown, its rump bright chestnut, and its uppertail coverts chestnut with reddish brown tips. Its wings are dark reddish brown and its tail is sooty blackish with some faint red-brown. Its throat is pale grayish white with dusky scaling and its upper breast dull rufescent brown with a scaly appearance. It has a wide ochraceous chestnut band across the middle of its breast. Its belly and flanks are dark olivaceous brown with chestnut tones and its undertail coverts are similar with richer chestnut. Its iris is dark brown, its maxilla black, its mandible black with a whitish base, and its legs and feed blackish brown. Juveniles resemble adults but are overall darker. Subspecies S. s. cearensis is slightly smaller than the nominate. It has a clear white unscaled throat and slightly brighter upper- and underparts.

The nominate subspecies of the rufous-breasted leaftosser is found from central Brazil's Mato Grosso, Goiás, and Minas Gerais states south into Rio Grande do Sul and through eastern Paraguay into northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province. It mostly inhabits lowland tropical rainforest and montane evergreen forest, and also occurs in mature secondary forest. In elevation it ranges from near sea level to 1,600 m (5,200 ft). The "Ceara" subspecies of the rufous-breasted leaftosser is found separately in northeastern Brazil between Ceará and Bahia. It inhabits the interior understorey in enclaves of brejos de altitude (humid relict forest) within the drier Caatinga. In elevation it ranges between 550 and 1,050 m (1,800 and 3,400 ft).

The nominate subspecies of rufous-breasted leaftosser forages mostly on the ground, flipping aside leaves, probing the ground and gleaning from it and leaf litter while hopping rather than walking. It usually forages singly, occasionally in pairs, and sometimes joins mixed-species foraging flocks. Its diet has not been detailed but has been documented to include beetles, spiders, and true bugs. The "Ceara" subspecies' diet has not been documented but is assumed to be mostly arthropods. It is assumed to forage in the same manner as the nominate.