Adult males have a mostly black head, throat, and neck but for bare blue-green to green skin around the eye and a chestnut patch behind it.

Adult females have little or no chestnut behind the eye and their black breast band is usually wider than the male's.

Their bill is gray, brown, horn, and black without the yellow basal line.

[4][5] The many-banded aracari is found from northeastern Colombia and northwestern and southeastern Venezuela south through eastern Ecuador to northeastern Peru and east into northwestern Brazil north of the Amazon River and east to Roraima state.

[4] The many-banded aracari forages singly, in pairs, or in small groups.

The many-banded aracari's calls are variously described as "seeent", "seeet", "see-yeet", "kyseek", and "kyeek".

Lack of information on its biology and population ecology would be serious handicaps if [the] species comes to need any protective action.