He coined the trinomial name Pipromorpha oleaginea macconnelli and specified the type location as the Kamakabra River in British Guiana.

[3] The name macconnelli was chosen to honor the memory of Frederick Vavasour McConnell (1868-1914), an English traveller and collector.

[4] It was treated as a separate species by the American ornithologist Clyde Todd in 1921,[5] and was placed in the genus Mionectes by Melvin Traylor in Volume 8 of the Check-list of Birds of the World published in 1979.

The IOC places the nominate subspecies in eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, northern and central Brazil, and northeastern Bolivia.

Clements places the nominate in eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and northeastern Brazil north of the Amazon River.

Clements further states that "it is unclear whether populations of east-central Brazil south of the Amazon refer to amazonas (as these historically have been identified), or to the geographically adjacent nominate macconnelli".

The map shows a second population in Peru, Bolivia, and adjacent Brazil that corresponds with Clements' peruanus plus amazonas.

It spans from October to April and possibly beyond in northern Brazil, thoughmostly between January and March, and at least from August to November in southeastern Peru.

Their nest is a ball made from plant fibers and leaves with a short side entrance tunnel.

It is typically suspended from a vine or the end of a branch 1 to 1.5 m (3 to 5 ft) above a pool of water or a small stream.

The very different song of M. m. peruanus (including M. m. amazonas) is a "series of well-spaced quiet, modulated trrr notes followed by a single louder, nasal querulous teeola".

"Much of this species’ habitat remains in good condition; nevertheless, recent research demonstrates that is highly sensitive to disturbance and numbers decline dramatically in forest that has been opened up by, for example, fire.