Black Antshrike

The black antshrike is 15 to 16 cm (5.9 to 6.3 in) long and weighs 23 to 24 g (0.81 to 0.85 oz). Members of genus Thamnophilus are largish members of the antbird family; all have stout bills with a hook like those of true shrikes. This species exhibits some sexual dimorphism. Adult males are almost entirely black. They have dark gray flanks and their underwing coverts and edges of the underside of their flight feathers are white. Adult females have a blackish gray head and upper breast with buff-white streaks. Their upperparts, wings, and tail are rufous-brown. Their lower breast and belly are gray with buff-white streaks and their crissum is unstreaked buff. The width of the streaks varies among individuals, and the amount of streaking increases from nearly none in the north to a significant amount in the south. Subadult males resemble adult females but with pale edges on the wing coverts and black bars on the crissum. Subadult females have wider streaks on their breast than adults.

The black antshrike is found in Panama from eastern Panamá Province south through Darién Province into northern Colombia. In that country it is found from northern Chocó Department east to, but not into, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in western La Guajira Department and south in the Magdalena River valley to Tolima Department. It primarily inhabits the edges and regrowing clearings of evergreen forest, and also secondary forest and semi-open woodlands. It greatly favors dense thickets of vines, thorns, and Heliconia. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 600 m (2,000 ft).

The black antshrike's diet is not known but is assumed to be insects and other arthropods. It usually forages singly or in pairs and seldom joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It forages in dense vegetation, usually within 2 m (7 ft) of the ground but sometimes as high as 7 m (25 ft) above it. It hops among branches to glean prey.