Ash-winged Antwren

The ash-winged antwren is 9.5 to 11 cm (3.7 to 4.3 in) long and weighs about 6.5 to 7.5 g (0.23 to 0.26 oz). The sexes have different plumage. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a whitish supercilium and a thin dark line through the eye on an otherwise gray face. Their crown and nape are black, their back, rump, and uppertail coverts rufous-chestnut, and their tail gray-brown. Their wing coverts are black with white tips that form two bars on the closed wing and their flight feathers black with pale gray edges. Their entire underparts are pale gray that is lightest on the throat and belly. Adult females have a yellowish brown crown, nape, and upper back; their supercilium, throat, breast, and flanks have a buffy-brown tinge. Subadults of both sexes have olive-green edges on their flight feathers. Subspecies E. s. signata males have chestnut lesser wing coverts. Subspecies E. s. meridionalis has olive edges on its flight feathers and a greenish yellow tinge on the tips of the wing coverts and the belly.

The ash-winged antwren has a disjunct distribution. Its subspecies are found thus:

E. s. signata: A disjunct distribution. One population extends from southeastern Colombia's Caquetá Department into extreme northeastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru (but see below). The other extends from Guainía Department in eastern Colombia into northwestern Brazil's upper Rio Negro region. (It may also occur in Colombia's Guaviare Department connecting the two populations.) E. s. spodioptila: from Amazonas and Bolívar states in southeastern Venezuela east through the Guianas and through Amazonian Brazil as far east as northern Pará. E. s. meridionalis: south central Amazonian Brazil between the rios Madeira and Tapajós The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society has no documented records from Peru and so treats the ash-winged antwren as hypothetical in that country. The ash-winged antwren inhabits lowland evergreen forest, primarily terra firme. It almost exclusively stays in the forest subcanopy and canopy. In elevation it mostly occurs below 600 m (2,000 ft) but is found as high as 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in the tepuis of Venezuela and Brazil.

The ash-winged antwren feeds on arthropods but details of its diet are lacking. It typically forages in pairs though single birds and small family groups have been observed, and it almost always is seen as a member of a mixed-species feeding flock. It forages high in the canopy, moving quickly and acrobatically through dense foliage.