White-throated Barbtail

The white-throated barbtail is 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a whitish supercilium, brownish ear coverts, and whitish streaks on the side of the neck. Their crown is dark gray-brown with a blackish scalloped appearance. Their back, rump, and uppertail coverts are dark gray-brown with a rufous tinge. Their wings and tail are dark fuscous; the ends of the tail feathers lack barbs, giving a spiny appearance. Their throat and upper breast are whitish and the rest of their underparts dark brownish with whitish streaks. Their iris is dark brown, their maxilla black, their mandible pale grayish pink (often with a black tip), and their legs and feet dark gray-brown to black. Juveniles are similar to adults. Subspecies P. t. pariae has a darker, duskier crown than the nominate, an unmarked buff throat, and darker brown underparts. Its breast has less distinct markings and its belly has wider streaks.

The white-throated barbtail has a disjunct distribution. The nominate subspecies is found along several mountain ranges in the northeastern Venezuelan states of Anzoátegui, Sucre and Monagas. It is found at elevations between 1,100 and 2,400 m (3,610 and 7,870 ft). Subspecies P. t. pariae is found along the eastern mountains of Venezuela's Paria Peninsula, where it occurs at elevations between 800 and 1,200 m (2,620 and 3,940 ft). The species inhabits wet, mossy, montane evergreen forest, where it favors an understory dominated by small palms and plants of the Arum family (Araceae).

The white-throated barbtail's diet has not been studied but it is believed to be mostly arthropods. It typically forages singly or in pairs, and sometimes to regularly joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It tends to feed low in the undergrowth, sometimes on the ground but more commonly up to about 3 m (10 ft) above it. It is doesn't hitch along trunks and branches but gleans prey from logs and rocks, and on the ground tosses aside leaf litter.