The northern chestnut-tailed antbird (Sciaphylax castanea) is a species of bird in the family Thamnophilidae. It is found in the Amazon Rainforest in northeastern Peru and far eastern Ecuador.

Quick Facts Conservation status, Scientific classification ...

Northern chestnut-tailed antbird
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thamnophilidae
Genus:	Sciaphylax
Species:	S. castanea
Binomial name
Sciaphylax castanea (Zimmer, JT, 1932)
Synonyms
Myrmeciza hemimelaena castanea Myrmeciza castanea

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The northern chestnut-tailed antbird was originally described by the American ornithologist John Zimmer in 1932 as a subspecies of the southern chestnut-tailed antbird with the trinomial name Myrmeciza hemimelaena castanea.^[2] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 found that the genus Myrmeciza, as then defined, was polyphyletic.^[3] In the resulting rearrangement to create monophyletic genera the northern chestnut-tailed antbird and the southern chestnut-tailed antbird were moved to a newly erected genus Sciaphylax.^[4]

Sciaphylax castanea is 11–12 cm in length and weighs 16–17 grams.^[5] It is similar to its congener Sciaphylax hemimelaena, but differentiated by their vocalisations. The tail is short. The male has a dark gray head and neck and reddish-brown upper parts, the wing coverts are blackish with white or yellowish-brown tips, the tail is rufous-brown; the throat and breast are black with gray and brown on the sides and flanks, the midribs are white. The female is similar to the male, but paler; the throat and breast are chestnut to rufous orange, the belly is white tinged with yellowish brown.^[6]