The slaty antwren (Myrmotherula schisticolor) is a small passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds".

[2] The slaty antwren has three subspecies, the nominate M. s. schisticolor (Lawrence, 1865), M. s. sanctaemartae (Allen, JA, 1900), and M. s. interior (Chapman, 1914).

Adult males of the nominate subspecies are mostly dark gray with a hidden white patch between the shoulders.

One population of it is found from Chiapas in extreme southeastern Mexico through Guatemala, southern Belize, and the Caribbean slope of Honduras into northern Nicaragua.

Subspecies M. s. sanctaemartae is found in Colombia's isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in the Serranía del Perijá on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, and in the Venezuelan Andes and Coastal Ranges.

[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] The slaty antwren inhabits a variety of moist forested landscapes, generally at higher elevations than most others of its genus.

In most of its range it occurs in foothill and montane evergreen forest, where it favors cloudforest, and in nearby secondary woodland.

In Costa Rica it breeds between March and July; its season in Venezuela includes January and February.

Its nest is a deep cup made of thinly woven fungal rhizomorphs bound by spider silk.

The slaty antwren's song is an "upslurred whistle sounding like 'wheet' " that is given as single notes a couple of seconds apart or more quickly as two to four interations.

"The foothill and middle-elevation slopes favoured by this species are often subject to the most intensive pressure from human colonization and cultivation, which could place some of its populations at risk.