It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

[2][3] The spotted puffbird was described in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae.

[7][8] When the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1788 he included the spotted puffbird and cited the works by the earlier ornithologists.

B. t. hypnaleus is larger than the nominate but with a smaller bill, and the spotting on its underside is heavier especially on the breast.

[11] The spotted puffbird usually forages from a low perch, sallying out to pluck prey from foliage or bark.

Its diet includes many types of insects, other invertebrates such as spiders and scorpions, small lizards, and mistletoe berries.

[11] The spotted puffbird's breeding season varies in different parts of its range, but in general is between March and September.