Amazonian Streaked-Antwren

The Amazonian streaked antwren is 9 to 10 cm (3.5 to 3.9 in) long and weighs 7.5 to 9 g (0.26 to 0.32 oz). It is a smallish bird with a tiny tail. Adult males have a black and white streaked face. Their crown, back, and rump are black with white streaks. They have a large white patch between the shoulders. Their tail is black with white edges and tips to the feathers. Their wings are black with white tips on the coverts and white edges on the flight feathers. Their throat, breast, and belly are white and their flanks and crissum grayer. Black streaks extend from the throat to the flanks and belly. Adult females have a buff face and cinnamon-rufous crown and nape with black streaks. Their breast and sides are buff and the rest of their underparts white with a buff tinge; their underparts have widespread thin black streaks.

The Amazonian streaked antwren is found locally in eastern Colombia and southern Venezuela. From there its range extends south and east through eastern Ecuador and eastern Peru into northern Bolivia and central Brazil to Maranhão and Tocantins in the east and Mato Grosso in the south. There is also an apparently isolated population in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul. It occurs almost entirely south of the Amazon River except in the lower reaches of the Rio Negro basin, a northern tributary. It inhabits the understorey and mid-storey of lowland evergreen forest (primarily várzea and igapó) and shrubby secondary forest. It occurs almost entirely near water, in thickets and vine tangles along rivers, streams, and oxbow lakes. In elevation it ranges from sea level to about 550 m (1,800 ft) but only to about 300 m (1,000 ft) in Colombia and Ecuador.

The Amazonian streaked antwren feeds on arthropods, especially insects and probably also spiders. It typically forages singly or in pairs and briefly, but seldom, joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It mostly feeds between about 1 and 15 m (3 and 50 ft) above the ground or water. It actively seeks prey among leaves and vine tangles and along branches, gleaning by reaching, lunging, and with brief sallies from a perch.