Hairy-crested Antbird

The hairy-crested antbird is 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 29 to 33 g (1.0 to 1.2 oz). Both sexes have a large pale bluish white ring of bare skin around the eye, and adults have a bushy crest. Adult males of the nominate subspecies R. m. melanosticta have an olive-tinged gray crest. Their nape, the sides of their neck, and their upperparts, wings, and tail are olive-brown. The wing feathers have rufous edges and the tail is blackish towards its tip. Their lores, face, and throat are black and the rest of their underparts dark olive-brown. Adult females are like males with the addition of short black bars with cinnamon-rufous edges on their upper back feathers and wing coverts. Subadult males do not have a crest; their crown is blackish, their upperparts like adult females', and their underparts have some blackish feathers. Subspecies R. m. brunneiceps is more rufescent than the nominate, with a black-streaked rufous to light brown crown and darker underparts. R. m. purusiana and R. m. badia are somewhat variable but paler than the nominate, and females have smaller black bars on their back.

The subspecies of the hairy-crested antbird are found thus:

R. m. melanosticta: from Meta Department in south-central Colombia south through eastern Ecuador into northeastern Peru north of the Amazon R. m. brunneiceps: eastern Peru south of the Marañón River and west of the Ucayali River between the departments of San Martín and Ayacucho R. m. purusiana: eastern Peru south of the Amazon and east of the Ucayali and western Amazonian Brazil to the Madeira River R. m. badia: southeastern Peru, northwestern Bolivia, and southwestern Amazonian Brazil The hairy-crested antbird primarily inhabits the understorey of humid terra firme evergreen forest though it also occurs in transitional forest between it and seasonally flooded areas. In elevation it reaches 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Colombia, 750 m (2,500 ft) in Ecuador, and 1,350 m (4,400 ft) in Peru.

The hairy-crested antbird is an obligate ant follower that feeds on a variety of arthropods that flee foraging army ant swarms, such as those of Eciton burchelli. It typically forages individually, in pairs, and in family groups, perching within about 1 m (3 ft) of the ground and sallying or pouncing to the ground after prey. Several family groups may attend an ant swarm. It is dominant over smaller antbirds but subordinate to larger antbirds and species of other families such as woodcreepers.