The species is found in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The black-and-red broadbill is mainly insectivorous, supplementing its diet with aquatic creatures such as mollusks, snails, fish, and crustaceans.

Breeding takes place during the dry season throughout its range, with the nest being a large, conspicuous structure that usually hangs over water.

The black-and-red broadbill is evaluated as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to its large range and the lack of a severe decrease in its global population.

However, the species has experienced declines in several parts of its range, and may face threats due to deforestation, trapping for the songbird trade, and hunting.

[8] The species is also known by the names Nok Phaya Paak Kwaang thong daeng in Thai,[9] Chim Mỏ rộng đỏ and Mỏ rộng đỏ in Vietnamese,[8] Sempur-hujan sungai in Indonesian,[10] and Takau rakit and burong tĕrajan in Malay (with the latter name only being used in the state of Kelantan).

[7] Based on a 2017 study by the Brazilian researcher Alexandre Selvatti and colleagues, its closest relative is the silver-breasted broadbill.

These two species are most closely related to the Eurylaimus broadbills, and all three genera form a sister clade to the genus Sarcophanops.

[7] The geographical limits of subspecies are not clearly defined, but the species displays clinal variation in appearance, as the size of birds increases and the white on the tail decreases from north to south through its range.

Both sexes are similar in appearance, but the species shows slight sexual dimorphism, with the females being smaller in size.

It is thought that the wide bill and gape first evolved in the common ancestor of all broadbills, as an adaptation to an insectivorous diet.

The most frequently heard call in Laos was a series of accelerating 'parnk' notes, similar to the noise made by the wingbeats of a wreathed hornbill.

[10][14][18] The black-and-red broadbill is found in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In areas affected by heavy land-conversion, it inhabits rubber plantations and coconut groves or orchards that have water channels.

They are mostly built over forest pools, rivers, and streams, and less commonly over coastal slacks, tidal mangroves, and man-made drainage ditches.

They are ragged, bag-shaped or pear-shaped structures, made out of tightly woven grasses, vines, sticks, bark, leaves, creepers, rootlets, vegetable fibers, pieces of moss, and fungal hyphae.

Nests are usually fixed to thin, flexible, and spiked branches or shoots, from Senegalia pennata and Bambusa species.

[22] Chiefly insectivorous, the black-and-red broadbill feeds on a variety of insects such as ants, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and hemipteran bugs.

[14] In Vietnam, a 2014 study of 157 black-and-red broadbills found that all the examined individuals were parasitized by the chewing louse Myrsidea claytoni.

[28] Potential predators of the black-and-red broadbill include raptors, civets, monkeys, snakes, and monitor lizards.

[1] The Irrawaddy broadbill, considered a separate species by the IUCN, is also listed as being of least-concern despite a decreasing population.

However, it has experienced considerable declines in some parts of its range, such as Thailand, due to deforestation, although it is still locally common where suitable habitat exists.