The giant antshrike (Batara cinerea) is a species of bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds".

[2] The giant antshrike was described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1819 and given the binomial name Thamnphilus cinerea (misspelled as Tamnphilus).

[4] It is the only member of genus Batara and has three subspecies, the nominate B. c. cinerea (Vieillot, 1819), B. c. excubitor (Bond, J & Meyer de Schauensee, 1940), and B. c. argentina (Shipton, 1918).

Compared to it, males have fewer bars on their wings and tail; females have less black on their crest, slightly paler upperparts, and warmer underparts.

It is found from southern Espírito Santo and southwestern São Paulo states in southeastern Brazil south to central Rio Grande do Sul and into northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province.

At lower elevations in Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay it occurs in stunted woodlands of the semi-arid Gran Chaco where it favors dense thorny thickets.

It makes a large messy cup nest of plant fibers and leaves, typically in a branch fork among dense vegetation about 1.5 to 3 m (5 to 10 ft) above the ground.

[6] Its calls include a "long, raspy, downward-inflected snarl, often repeated rapidly, and a short even series of abrupt loud notes".