The pale-legged hornero (Furnarius leucopus) is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae.

The International Ornithological Committee (IOC), BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW), and the Clements taxonomy assign it these four subspecies:[2][3][4] The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC) adds three others, F. l. cinnamomeus (Lesson, 1844), F. l. longirostris (von Pelzeln, 1856), and F. l. endoecus (Cory, 1919).

[6] The SACC accepts that cinnamomeus may deserve species rank but declined to make the split due to "insufficient published data".

Adults of the nominate subspecies F. l. leucopus have a wide whitish supercilium, brownish gray ear coverts, and a tawny-rufous malar area.

Juveniles resemble adults but for a visibly shorter bill and the shape of their flight and tail feathers.

[7][8] Subspecies F. l. tricolor has a grayer crown, more ochraceous back, and paler wings and tail than the nominate.

[7] The pale-legged hornero's breeding biology is "[s]urprisingly poorly known for such a relatively abundant, noisy, and conspicuous species".

Though its nest has not been formally described, it is an "oven" of clay and animal dung with an inner chamber lined with dry plant matter.

Both members of a pair construct it, typically on a tree branch but also on horizontal structures like the crossbars of utility poles.

Its calls are "a loud, rich, scratchy or reedy chet or kyeek, or a descending cheeop".