The genus was long included in family Thraupidae, the "true" tanagers, but it was moved in 2017.

The nominate subspecies has a deep gray crown and a black "mask" with white spots in front of, above, and below the eye.

Subspecies P. p. coryi is larger than the nominate and paler overall with a white streak down the center of the breast and belly.

[5] The grey-crowned palm-tanager's nominate subspecies is found on the Tiburon Peninsula of southwestern Haiti and the small island of Grande Cayemite off its northern shore.

It is most easily viewed on the Massif de la Hotte towards the western end of the Tiburon Peninsula.

Its major dietary component is small arthropods with a lesser contribution from fruit.

[5] As of late 2022 xeno-canto had no recordings of grey-crowned palm-tanager vocalizations and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library had very few.

[1] "The small amount of forest left on Hispaniola is under constant pressure [but the species'] generalist habits likely buffer it to some extent from the effects of deforestation".