[2] It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

[3] The first formal description of the white-plumed antbird was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae.

[9] Juvenile birds do not have the white plumes, postocular streak, and rufous-chestnut "collar" of adults, and their upperparts are browner and underparts grayer.

In Peru it occurs north of the Amazon and Maranon rivers and along the base of the Andes south to the Department of Ayacucho.

[16] Each pair occupies a home range exceeding 200 ha (490 acres) in order to ensure that swarms of army ants to follow to food can be found at all times.

[19] White-plumed antbirds are very persistent in holding on to territories and may remain even in case of conflict with other individuals, if enough food sources are available.

[18] They are generally solitary outside of the breeding season and will tend to follow individual ant swarms through the forest.

[10] Like other antbirds, they perform anting, which is the process of brushing small insects through their wing and tail feathers.

It is still unknown whether the main function of this process is to ease irritation during molting, kill mites, or detoxify distasteful insects.

This reaction to danger involves the bird darting back and forth making chipping noises, spreading its tail and flicking rapidly to find their last prey items before fleeing.

In reaction to human presence, the bird tends to make a chirring sound and mob the intruder.

[10] White-plumed antbirds typically build their bottom-supported cup nests atop live vegetation such as small palms, sedges and tuberous plants.

[21][22] The eggs have a rosy-white base color with many longitudinal rosy-brown flecks and a few rosy hairline markings covering the surface.

There are two main calls with the latter function, one that is very high and thin because it is hard to locate the source of such sounds, and a kind of buzzing (aimed mostly at ground predators and humans) that mimics the lower warning growls of carnivores.