Tufted Antshrike

The tufted antshrike is a large dark antbird, 20 to 23 cm (7.9 to 9.1 in) long and weighing 50 to 80 g (1.8 to 2.8 oz). The species exhibits significant sexual dimorphism, though both sexes have a crest (that usually is flattened), red irises, and a moderately long black bill with a hook at the end like true shrikes. Adult males are mostly sooty gray with a blackish forehead and crest and browish black wings. Adult females are mostly blackish brown. Their forehead and crest are rufous, their upperparts have cinnamon bars, their tail has faint paler bars, and their underparts have pale buff bars. Subadult males resemble adult males but are more brownish overall.

The tufted antshrike is found in Brazil from southeastern Bahia and east-central Minas Gerais south to Rio Grande do Sul and through eastern Paraguay into northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province. The tufted antshrike is a bird of the Atlantic Forest. It inhabits the understorey to mid-storey of evergreen forest and secondary forest in the lowlands and foothills. It favors areas with dense tangles of vines, thickets, and stands of bamboo. It also occurs in patches of highly degraded forest and also overgrown banana and Eucalyptus plantations and orchards that have dense stands of bamboo. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 1,400 m (4,600 ft).

The tufted antshrike feeds on a variety of large insects and other arthropods; its diet also includes molluscs and small vertebrates including frogs, lizards, snakes, bird eggs and nestlings. It forages singly or in pairs, mostly within about 3 m (10 ft) of the ground but as high as 10 m (35 ft) in dense bamboo and vine tangles. It hops from branch to branch and along the ground, reaching from a perch to glean prey from leaves, stems, and branches. It occasionally drops to the ground to seize prey.