The Grey-headed Elaenia is a small canopy bird of eastern South America. It gleans insects from leaves and twigs and also eats small fruits; southernmost birds may move north during the austral winter. Older accounts can use a broader species concept, so this entry follows Myiopagis caniceps.
The adult male has a medium-gray crown with a partly concealed white stripe. Its upperparts are olive-gray, and white tips on the black wing feathers form two bars when the wing is folded. This account emphasizes male field marks.
It forages in the canopy of dry forest, gallery forest, and wooded cerrado, gleaning leaves and twigs and sometimes hovering briefly to take prey. It joins mixed-species flocks. Seasonal northward movement is reported for southernmost birds; most of the range is resident.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.