[3] The yellow-browed antbird was described by the English zoologist Philip Sclater in 1869 and given its current binomial name Hypocnemis hypoxantha.

Adult females are similar to males but are overall paler and their crown center and wing covert tips are light buff.

It is overall somewhat browner, with paler yellow underparts, more streaking on the breast, and pale ochraceous buff flanks.

Both sexes of both subspecies have a brown iris, a black maxilla, and gray legs and feet.

It is found from the southern Colombian departments of Caquetá, Guaviare, and Vaupés south through eastern Ecuador into northern Peru.

Its range extends east from Colombia and northern Peru into western Amazonian Brazil.

Pairs forage together, moving slowly through vegetation, and usually taking prey from foliage by gleaning and by short hops and sallies.

It sometimes joins mixed-species feeding flocks and occasionally attends army ant swarms.

The Ecuador nest contained two eggs that were white with pale cinnamon and darker red-brown markings.