It is endemic to the south-central Amazon Rainforest in Brazil, and it is threatened by habitat loss.

Helmut Sick described this species in 1959 based on a series of specimens collected a few years before near a small tributary of the upper Rio Cururu-ri in the east Brazilian Amazon.

The species was only rediscovered (in part due to confusion over the original type locality) in 2002[2] and is now known from a number of locations in an area bordered by the Jamanxim and Tapajos rivers and the Cachimbo Range.

[3] The golden-crowned manakin closely resembles both its parent species with the exception of its unique yellow crown.

Following hybridization, sexual selection is proposed to have favored sequestration of yellow producing carotenoid pigments into the crown as a way to render males more attractive to females.