[2] The black-headed antbird was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[7][2] The white-lined antbird (Myrmoborus lophotes) was originally placed in Percnostola but following a 2013 study was moved to its present genus.

[8] The black-headed antbird has these four subspecies:[2] Capparella et al. suggested that P. r. minor (with P. r. jensoni) should be treated as a species but this view has not gained worldwide support.

Adult males of the nominate subspecies P. r. rufifrons are mostly gray, with black crown, short crest, and throat.

Females have a black crest with gray feather edges, a dark olive-gray face, a whitish throat, and paler and more uniform underparts than minor.

Subspecies P. r. rufifrons is found from eastern and southern Guyana east through Suriname and French Guiana, in northern Brazil from the Trombetas River to the Atlantic in Amapá, and south into northeastern Roraima.

[12][13][14][15][16][excessive citations] The subspecies of the black-headed antbird differ somewhat in their habitats, but in general they occur in lowland and foothill terra firme evergreen forest and mature secondary woodland.

[12] The black-headed antbird feeds on a wide variety of insects and other arthropods and occasionally also on small reptiles and fruit.

It captures prey by gleaning, reaching, jumping (upward and to the ground), lunging from a perch, and by searching leaf litter.

Its nest varies somewhat across its range but in general is a ball or dome made mostly of dead leaves on the ground or only slightly above it.

The black-headed antbird's song in Brazil is a "high, calm, decelerating series of loud sharp 'tieew' notes".

[12][14][15] In Peru P. r. jensoni is considered very local[16] which "suggests that it is patchily distributed within its small range, placing it at greater potential risk from habitat destruction than are other races".