It is found in every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

[2] The Amazonian black-throated trogon was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[10][1][9] However, as of 2024 the North American Classification Committee of the AOS and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) have not recognized the split.

[13] Like most trogons, the Amazonian black-throated has distinctive male and female plumages with soft colorful feathers.

Adult males of the nominate subspecies T. r. rufus have a black forehead and face with a pale blue ring of bare skin around their eye.

The upper side of their tail is metallic green to blue with a black band at the end.

Adult females have mostly brown upperparts; their crown is darker and their rump and uppertail coverts lighter.

Their tail's upper side is mostly dark reddish brown with a wide black band at the end.

Immatures resemble the adults but are duller, and young males have a brown throat, breast, and wing coverts.

In Colombia it occurs in terra firme forest, and in southwestern Brazil is sometimes associated with stands of Guadua bamboo.

[13][14][15][16][17][18][excessive citations] "Trogons and quetzals perch erectly with tail hanging downward, and they may remain motionless and quiet for protracted periods.

[13] The Amazonian black-throated trogon's diet has not been detailed but includes both fruit and insects.

[13][14] A study in French Guiana found that there the species foraged alone 89% of the time and joined mixed-species feeding flocks at about 11%.

[17] (emphasis in original) That of the Amazonian black-throated trogon is "a slow, regularly spaced series of 2–6 (typically 3–4) nasal, over-slurred coo notes".