[3] The yellow-breasted warbling antbird was described by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1873 and given its current binomial name Hypocnemis subflava.

[4] It was later, and for a long time, considered a subspecies of the then warbling antbird Hypocnemis cantator sensu lato.

Their flight feathers are gray-brown with yellowish olive-brown edges and their wing coverts black with white tips.

Their underparts are mostly plain yellow with weak rufous flanks and pale buff undertail coverts.

[7][8][9] The nominate subspecies of the yellow-breasted warbling antbird is found in the Andean foothills of east-central Peru between the departments of Huánuco and Cuzco.

[7] The yellow-breasted warbling antbird's diet and foraging behavior are not known in detail, but it feeds primarily on insects and spiders.

The yellow-breasted warbling antbird's song is written "chee cher-CHEER-cheer-cher-chrrr" and its call as "hrjzz hrjzzesh".