Gray Antbird

The grey antbird is 13 to 15 cm (5.1 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 14 to 18 g (0.49 to 0.63 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies C. c. cinerascens have dark gray upperparts with a small white patch between their scapulars. Their tail is blackish gray with wide white spots at the ends of the feathers. Their wings have a brown tinge and have faint white spots on the coverts. Females have olive-brown crown and upperparts, a minimal white interscapular patch, and a grayer rump. Their wings are darker than their back with pale yellowish olive tips on the coverts. Their tail is slaty with white terminal spots. Their throat and underparts are mostly olive-yellow with dusky flanks and crissum. Subadult males resemble adult females with a larger interscapular patch. Males of subspecies C. c. immaculata have a minimal or no interscapular patch and females have smaller spots on their tail than the nominate. Both sexes of C. c. sclateri have larger white interscapular patches and tail tips than the nominate. Males are darker overall than the nominate and have larger white spots on their wing coverts and a hidden white patch under them. C. c. iterata is similar to sclateri though both sexes are paler. Females' rumps are the same color as their back and their tail is olivaceous with a black band near the end of the feathers.

The subspecies of the grey antbird are found thus:

C. c. cinerascens: southeastern Colombia and southern Venezuela south through eastern Ecuador and northwestern Amazonian Brazil into northeastern Peru to the Amazon and Marañón rivers C. c. immaculata: eastern Venezuela, the Guianas and northeastern Amazonian Brazil C. c. sclateri: eastern Peru south of the Amazon and (mostly) Marañón, southwestern Amazonian Brazil, and northwestern Bolivia C. c. iterata: southeastern Amazonian Brazil from the Madeira River east to western Maranhão state and south through southern Pará and western Mato Grosso into northeastern Bolivia The grey antbird inhabits the dense vegetation in the mid-storey and subcanopy of terra firme evergreen forest, where it particularly favors areas with abundant tangles of vines. In elevation it occurs from near sea level to about 900 m (3,000 ft) in much of its range. It occurs mostly below 700 m (2,300 ft) in Colombia and Ecuador but reaches 1,150 m (3,800 ft) in Peru.

The grey antbird's diet has not been detailed but is known to be primarily insects and includes spiders. Individuals, pairs, and family groups usually forage between about 8 and 20 m (25 and 65 ft) above the ground and sometimes higher. They hop through vine tangles and other dense vegetation and usually take prey by gleaning and lunging from a perch. They sometimes join mixed-species feeding flocks that pass through their territory. In Brazil they have been observed briefly following Eciton burchelli army ant swarms.