[2] It is found in Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

[4] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.

[5] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Montacilla galeata in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.

[7] Genus Lophotriccus had been introduced by the German ornithologist Hans von Berlepsch in 1883.

[8] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek lophos meaning "crest" with trikkos which is an unidentified small bird.

The species primarily inhabits the interior and edges of terra firme and várzea forest.

It mostly forages by itself in the forest's middle level, and occasionally joins mixed-species feeding flocks.

[10][13] The helmeted pygmy tyrant's breeding season has not been defined but includes March in Suriname and spans at least February to April in Venezuela.

The helmeted pygmy tyrant's song is a "[s]eries of 4–10 dry staccato 'pik' or 'trik' notes, sometimes ending in warbled or trilled phrase".