It is found in the tropical New World from southern Mexico south as far as northern Bolivia and east across Brazil.

The Amazonian plain xenops was formerly described in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Illiger based on a specimen collect near Cametá in northeast Brazil.

Adults of the nominate subspecies X. g. genibarbis have a conspicuous buff or whitish supercilium and a wide pure white malar stripe.

The rest of their underparts are plain dull grayish brown with some light buff spotting on the foreneck and breast.

It has been recorded eating termites, Hymenoptera like ants and bees, beetles, katydids, millipedes, and spiders.

It does much of its foraging on fairly thin dead branches, often rotten ones and those that have fallen into the understory, and also feeds along vines.

[7][8][9][10][11][excessive citations] Most of what is known about the Amazonian plain xenops' breeding biology is from Skutch's Life Histories of Central American Birds.

Both members of a pair excavate a cavity in rotten wood, usually 3 to 10 m (10 to 30 ft) above ground, and line it with soft plant material.

It has been variously described as "a very fast chattering trill, accelerating then slowing at end, dit dit dit-dit 'dt'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'a'a'a" (Colombia) and "a slightly descending, slightly accelerating, series of high, lisping, rising notes, usually a pause before the last note: wisst wisst-wisst-wisst-wisst wisst" (Peru).

[12] Descriptions of its calls also vary: "a soft chip, uttered singly or rapidly in a trill", "a thin tseep and a lisping hiss, psssi", "high spi!