Adult males have a black forehead, crest, front of the face, throat, and breast center.

Their wings are black with white tips on the coverts and cinnamon edges on the flight feathers.

Their wings are brown with white tips on the coverts and cinnamon edges on the flight feathers.

[10][11] The silvery-cheeked antshrike is found in northeastern Brazil from Ceará and central and western Rio Grande do Norte south through southeastern Piauí, western Pernambuco, and inland Bahia into central Minas Gerais.

[10] The silvery-cheeked antshrike's diet includes insects and other arthropods; it favors ants and termites, and during the breeding season caterpillars.

It captures prey mostly by reaching up from the ground or a perch to glean from leaves, vines, and branches.

The silvery-cheeked antshrike's song is a "short series of chopped, nasal notes, accelerating and trailing off to a growling sound" and lasting three to four seconds.

"Mata-de-cipó and taller caatinga woodlands are habitats under increasing threat from agricultural conversion, grazing, and cutting for firewood.