The pale-breasted spinetail (Synallaxis albescens) is a passerine bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae.

[2] It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad, and in every mainland South American country except Chile and Ecuador.

Adults of the nominate subspecies S. a. albescens have a pale brownish gray face with an even paler line through the eye.

These include savanna, cerrado, campo rupestre, shrub-steppe, brushy areas in woodlands, pastures, and the edges of secondary forest, marshes, and roadsides.

[10][11][12][13][14][15] The pale-breasted spinetail is believed to be a year-round resident in most of its range, though the farthest southern sub-population might make some northern movement after the breeding season.

[10] The pale-breasted spinetail feeds on a wide variety of arthropods, and also includes small snails in its diet.

[10] The pale-breasted spinetail's breeding season varies geographically but is generally within the local spring and summer.

Though it is a member of the ovenbird family, which is named for the clay nests many species make, the pale-breasted spinetail constructs a globe of grass and thorny sticks with a horizontal entrance tube.

Its song is variously described as "a sharp, scratchy zwee-bit, zweebit"[13], a "very high scratchy wéetjirr wéetjirr"[14], an "incessantly repeated wee-tee"[15], an "unceasing, very high, shrill 'zutsweet zutsweet- -' "[11], a repeated "wee bidget..wee bidget..."[12], and "a buzzy, nasal 'wéé-byew', 'wáke-up', 'wa-tér' "[10].