Orinoco Softtail

The Orinoco softtail is 15.5 to 17.5 cm (6.1 to 6.9 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a faint buff or whitish supercilium on a otherwise buff-streaked brownish face. Their forehead is brown with buff streaks and their crown medium brown with some faint yellowish spots. Their back is rufescent brown with a faint olive cast, their rump rufescent, and their uppertail coverts reddish chestnut. Their tail is dark rufous to reddish chestnut. Their wings are mostly dark rufous chestnut with rufous-cinnamon at the base of the flight feathers. Their chin is a conspicuous tawny orange and their upper throat chestnut rufous. Their lower throat, neck, and breast are raw umber brown or olive brown with sharp buff streaks. Their belly is paler brown and their undertail coverts reddish rufous or ferruginous. Their iris is dark red, their bill gray to blackish, and their legs and feet dull pinkish olive.

The Orinoco softtail was long thought to be endemic to the area in south-central Venezuela where it was first collected. As of mid-2023, the International Ornithological Committee still lists it that way. However, in 2012 it was confirmed to be present in Colombia, in the departments of Guainía and Vichada adjacent to Venezuela. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, the Clements taxonomy, and BirdLife International list it as present in both countries. The full extent of its range has not been determined. The Orinoco softtail inhabits the dense understory along watercourses in várzea forest. Vines and bamboo are important components of its habitat. It has a very small elevational range of between about 120 and 150 m (400 and 500 ft) above sea level.

The Orinoco softtail's diet has not been described. The one observation of a feeding bird described it foraging in dead leaves and on vines in the forest understory. It has been observed in mixed-species foraging flocks. Nothing else is known about its feeding behavior.