It closely resembles the yellow-margined and yellow-olive flatbills, but its lower mandible is dark with a pale base.

It is a fairly common bird with a wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it as "least concern".

Several species of flatbill overlap in their range and are easily confused with each other visually, but their songs are mostly distinctive.

Its range includes Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

[4] The grey-crowned flatbill has a very wide range in the Amazon rainforest and on the lower slopes on the eastern side of the Andes.