This antbird occurs in Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay. A study in Brazil's Pantanal found it in understory thickets of forest and seasonally flooded savanna.
One young male captured in October 2001 had gray plumage like a female, with black on the head and chest and a small white area on the back. It was molting toward adult plumage.
At the Pantanal study site, birds used understory thickets in gallery forest, deciduous woodland and seasonally flooded savanna; pairs were often near water. All 24 stomach contents examined contained arthropods.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.