It is found from Mexico south through Central America and in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.

[3] The dusky antbird was described by the English zoologist Philip Sclater in 1855 and given the binomial name Pyriglena tyrannina.

Males of the nominate subspecies C. t. tyrannina are mostly slate gray; their wings and tail are darker and their underparts lighter.

[8] The subspecies of the dusky antbird are found thus:[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][2] The dusky antbird inhabits the understorey of evergreen forest, where it overwhelmingly favors the forest edges and clearings and the edges of watercourses.

[8] The dusky antbird feeds on a wide variety of insects and spiders.

Single birds, pairs, and family groups usually forage on the ground and within about 5 m (16 ft) of it.

In Panama it regularly attends army ant swarms, usually for a fairly short time.

[8][10][11][12][14][15] The dusky antbird's breeding season varies geographically, for instance it spans February to October in Costa Rica and Panama and August to November in Amazonian Brazil.

Its nest is a roundish to elongated pouch made a variety of plant materials including dead leaves, strips of palm frond, grasses, fungal rhizomorphs, and fern stems.

"Its ability to occupy second-growth thickets and forest edge renders this species less vulnerable to disturbance than are most antbirds.