[2] It is native to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and most of the northern half of South America, its habitat being humid lowland forest where it feeds mainly on insects and fruit.

Males have a large purple-red upper throat patch, (similar to the gorget of the hummingbirds), extending to the side of the neck.

It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela; also in southern Central America in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

It goes from the Guianas and Maranhão state, northeastern Brazil in the east, and throughout the Amazon basin to the Andes foothills in the west; it is only absent in the Amazon Basin in the northeast and north central bordering the Guiana Highlands and southern Venezuela; otherwise the range is contiguous east of the Andes.

[1] Despite its name, the purple-throated fruitcrow feeds on insects as well as fruit, moving through the forest canopy in small chattering groups.