Slate-colored Antbird

The slate-colored antbird is 14.5 to 15.5 cm (5.7 to 6.1 in) long and weighs 19 to 28.5 g (0.67 to 1.0 oz). Males are mostly dark bluish gray or slate gray. Their wings and tail are blackish gray with small white spots at the tips of the wing coverts. Females have a dark chestnut crown with thin rufous streaks. Their back and wings are olive brown with wide ochraceous buff tips on the wing coverts. Their tail is slate gray, their face and underparts are orangish rufous or rufous. Both sexes have a gray iris and leaden to bluish gray legs and feet. Males have a black bill; females have a gray maxilla and a black mandible.

The slate-colored antbird is found in the lowlands of the western Amazon Basin. It occurs in southern Colombia, far northeastern Ecuador, northeastern to east-central Peru, and western Brazil east to central Amazonas state. It inhabits the understory of terra firme forest. In elevation it reaches 250 m (800 ft) in Ecuador and 400 m (1,300 ft) in Colombia.

The slate-colored antbird's diet has not been detailed but is known to include insects. It forages as individuals, pairs, and small family groups and mostly within about 1 m (3 ft) of the ground and only rarely with mixed species feeding flocks. They hop along the ground and among low branches and take prey mostly by picking from leaf litter and by reaching to leaves and twigs from the ground or a low perch. They occasionally attend army ant swarms to capture prey disturbed by the ants.