Pale-browed Treehunter

The nominate subspecies of the pale-browed treehunter is about 22 cm (8.7 in) long; subspecies C. l. holti is about 18 cm (7.1 in) long. Both subspecies have a long dagger-like bill, and male and female plumages are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a buffish white supercilium, blackish and dull buff lores, and a dark brown band behind the eye on an otherwise duff buff face. Their crown is dark brown whose feathers have obvious buff to rusty-buff shafts. They have an indistinct blackish brown collar with buff streaks. Their back is rufescent brown with long blurry buff streaks and their rump and uppertail coverts are a slightly paler brown with indistinct buff streaks. Their tail is pale rufous or cinnamon. Their wing coverts are brown with indistinct buff streaks and their flight feathers rich brown. Their throat is pale yellowish buff, their breast has strong pale buff and brown streaks, and their belly, flanks, and undertail coverts are like the breast with the streaks progressively fading. Their iris is very dark, their maxilla dusky gray, their mandible a paler brown with gray towards the tip, and their legs and feet variable from greenish gray to pale brownish. Juveniles are much like adults but with less distinct streaking on their underparts. Compared to the nominate subspecies, C. l. …

The pale-browed treehunter is found in southeastern Brazil. The nominate subspecies occurs from southern Bahia south to Rio de Janeiro state. C. l. holti occurs from São Paulo state south to northeastern Rio Grande do Sul. The species inhabits humid lowland and montane evergreen forest. The nominate subspecies occurs from sea level to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) while C. l. holti reaches only about 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

The pale-browed treehunter feeds on arthropods. It often, and perhaps usually, forages as a member of a mixed-species feeding flock. It feeds at any level of the forest between its understory and the subcanopy. It forages along larger limbs and branches, probing and gleaning for prey, with a strong preference for seeking it in bromeliads and other epiphytes. It sometimes goes completely into clumps of bromeliads and may hang upside-down to feed.