This antbird occurs in Colombia, Ecuador, and western Venezuela. It uses the undergrowth of humid forest on the western slopes of the Andes.
Males are black with bare pale-blue skin around the eye, which can look whitish behind the eye. A small white shoulder mark may be hidden. Females are brown with a darker tail.
It inhabits humid forest and woodland undergrowth on the western Andean slope, mostly below 1,400 m. It forages for insects on the dark forest floor and may follow ant swarms.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.