The brown-chested alethe (Chamaetylas poliocephala) is a species of bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.

The brown-chested alethe was formally described in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte based on a manuscript by Coenraad Temminck.

Bonaparte gave the binomial name as Trichophorus (Griniger) and the locality as Africa.

The locality has been restricted to the island of Bioko (formally Fernando Po).

[4] The brown-chested alethe is now one of four species placed in the genus Chamaetylas that was introduced in 1860 by Ferdinand Heine.