[6] Most of the recent records of the species come from the Valle del Cauca Department, where it resides year-round and remains fairly common even in small forest fragments.

During 1996, juveniles of the species were observed at the Santuario de Fauna y Flora Otún-Quimbaya, and Parque Regional Ucumarí, in the department of Risaralda.

[1] The multicolored tanager used to be fairly common, but population declines have been recorded throughout its range owing to ongoing habitat destruction, and nowadays it is only encountered very infrequently, primarily in remnant forest fragments.

[6] Although the species occurs in protected areas with large tracts of suitable habitat like Farallones de Cali, Munchique, and Los Nevados National Parks, most recent records come from unprotected and private forests in the Valle del Cauca Department.

Scientific research studies are necessary in order to accurately estimate the size of the different subpopulations and to gain insight about the species' ecological requirements.

Since the construction of the Cali-Buenaventura road during the first decade of the twentieth century, this area has been heavily transformed, mainly for agriculture and cattle ranching, and the remaining forest patches range from 10 to 400 ha.

[14] Bosque de Yotoco Reserve is another Important Bird Area in the Valle del Cauca department where this species occurs.

[13] In addition to protected areas, several NGOs work in various aspects of conservation in the zone, especially environmental education with the local communities.