[3] The barred antshrike was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1764 and given the binomial name Lanius doliatus.

Adult males of the nominate subspecies T. d. doliatus are almost entirely plumaged with alternating black and white bars.

Adults of both sexes have a pale yellow iris, a black maxilla, a bluish gray mandible, and lead-gray legs and feet.

In all areas it favors thick undergrowth rather than higher parts of the habitat and shuns the interior of mature forest.

In southern Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina it adds savanna to the scrub, secondary forest, and riverine belts.

It primarily feeds on a wide variety of mature and larval insects but also includes significant amounts of other arthropods, small lizards, fruit, and seeds.

It usually gleans prey from leaves, stems, branches, and trunks using a rapid stabbing motion.

The species' breeding season varies considerably across its large range, and every month of the year is represented somewhere.

The species' nest is a tightly woven, though thin-walled, open cup made of fungal and vegetable fibers, vines, grasses, and twigs.

It is usually suspended by its rim from a branch fork up to 10 m (35 ft) above the ground, though the heights appear to vary geographically.

[9][12] The species' song or songs have not been extensively studied across its range, but the general pattern is "a long series of loud chuckling or cackling notes that rapidly ascend with increasing intensity, and then descend, ending with an emphatic final note".

[16] The barred antshrike's calls vary among the subspecies, though a "crow-like caw" seems to be nearly universal though its function is not known.

It has an extremely large range and its estimated population of at least 50 million mature individuals is believed to be stable.