[2][3] It is found in a small area of the Amazon rainforest near the Madeira River in the far west of Brazil close to the Peruvian border.

It was first discovered in 1829 but the one specimen collected then, an immature male, sat forgotten in the Natural History Museum, Vienna until 1868, when August von Pelzeln concluded it represented an undescribed species.

For many decades after that, no further individuals were seen; its close similarity to the widespread black-crowned tityra resulted in its being widely considered an aberrant specimen of that.

Very recently however, further live male individuals were seen and later photographed in the same region in 2006 and 2022 respectively; re-evaluation based on these new sightings resulted in the conclusion that Pelzeln was correct in his decision to name it as a distinct species.

[2] Like others of its genus, white-tailed tityra forages for invertebrates in trees and bushes, typically moving slowly through the branches.