The male has a blue head with an orange orbital ring, a red belly with a narrow white breastband and a green back.

The blue-crowned trogon was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae.

[2][3] Linnaeus based his description on the "Curucui" that had been described and illustrated in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his book Historia Naturalis Brasiliae.

[4][5] The name "Curucui" and the specific epithet are derived from Surucui, a word from the extinct Brazilian Tupi language for a small bird.

The crown, sides of the neck, and breast are glossy greenish blue, the nape turquoise-green, and the back metallic bronzy green.

[9] The male blue-crowned trogon's song is "a fast, evenly paced repetition of...'kow' [notes], lasting about 4-5 seconds and ending abruptly".

T. c. peruvianus is found in the Andean foothills of southern Colombia, eastern Ecuador and Peru, and northwestern Bolivia and from there east into Amazonian Brazil as far as the Tapajós River.

[1] It is rare to common in different parts of its range and occurs in several protected areas in Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina.