White-fronted capuchins are found in seven different countries in South America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Like other capuchin monkeys, they are omnivorous, feeding primarily on fruits, invertebrates, other plant parts and sometimes small vertebrates.

[citation needed] Even when the white-fronted capuchins were all considered to belong to a single species, there were problems with its name, description and type locality.

[14] In the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (2013) Mittermeier and Rylands limit C. albifrons to gracile capuchins found in the upper Amazon basin in southern Venezuela, southern and eastern Colombia and northwest Brazil, based largely on the work of Jean Boubli, Thomas Defler and Jorge Hernández-Camacho.

[15][16] In particular, the following forms that had previously been considered subspecies or populations of C. albifrons have been reclassified as separate species:[15] Mittermeier and Rylands consider the Trinidad white-fronted capuchin to be synonymous with the brown weeper capuchin (C. brunneus), but other authors including the IUCN regard it as a separate species, C. trinitatis.

Hernández-Camacho and Cooper reported some specimens of capuchin from the Barranquilla animal market had supposedly come from the middle valley of the San Jorge River.

[4] Some specimens of C. versicolor seen in the market at Magangué‚ and probably captured in the lower Cauca River, show similar tendencies to the above, except that there is no increase in the dark pigmentation.

[4][16] Another critical zone for this analysis is an area in northeast Ecuador where C. aecuatoriales and white-faced capuchins are found, although neither sympatric distributions or intergradation have as yet been determined.

In Vichada it exploits a more xeric habitat in terms of drainage, compared with the tufted capuchin, which tends to be found in forests that are more mesophytic.

[25] In Colombia, white-fronted capuchins are found from the northern slopes of the Sierra de Santa Marta to the south, in the valley of the Magdalena River to an as yet undefined point in the Department of Tolima and in the valley of the lower Cauca River, to the eastern parts of central Antioquia and the southern parts of Sucre to the west.

[26] Humboldt's white-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons, is very common in the eastern half of El Tuparro National Park, Colombia.

Cebus a. cesarae can be located in the Serranía del Perijá east of Valledupar, Cesar also in Colombia.

White-fronted capuchins have been studied in Colombia by Defler, in two different sites in Peru by Soini and Terborgh, in Trinidad by Phillips and in Ecuador by Matthews.

During certain times of the year they are extremely terrestrial, especially when there is a scarcity of available fruits and the troop must search for arthropods in the dry leaves of the forest floor.

In some parts of the Llanos Orientales they are found walking over the grassy savanna between forests, leaving well-beaten trails.

In northern Colombia during the dry season when there are few fruits to be found, white-fronted capuchins spend more than half their time on the ground, searching for and capturing small prey.

Importance values for plant families consumed by the white-fronted capuchin in one study are as follows: Moraceae (17, 23.3%); Leguminosae (5, 6.8%); Araceae (4, 5.5%); Bombacaceae (4, 5.5%); Palmae (4, 5.5%).

[32] Defler collected 40 species of plants from 23 families eaten by white-fronted capuchins in Vichada according to species consumed per family: Arecaceae (7); Moraceae (6); Chrysobalanaceae (3); Leguminosae (3); Passifloraceae (2); Bromeliaceae (2); Burseraceae (2); Bombacaceae (1); Celastraceae (1); Connaraceae (1); Euphorbiaceae (1); Lecythidaceae (1); Maranthaceae (1); Melastomataceae (1); Anacardiaceae (1); Myrtaceae (1); Annonaceae (1); Musaceae (1); Apocynaceae (1); Orchidaceae (1); Araceae (1); Rubiaceae (1); Bignoriaceae (1).

In El Tuparro National Park in Colombia, the palm Attalea regiae was a key species for white-fronted capuchins, the nuts being a principal food.

With time the baby begins to climb up on other members of the troop, including the adult males who are interested in protecting the little one.

Defler observed intergroup aggressive behavior among Humboldt's white-fronted capuchins in El Tuparro, which resulted in one group fleeing towards the central parts of their territory.

[28][15] Alpha males seem to exercise a "control position" at the center of the group, since all members are extremely conscious and alert to his location, and they all observe his reactions.

[33] These observations suggest that, like the common chimpanzee, wild capuchins demonstrate tool manufacture and use in foraging-related contexts.

[27][29] After detecting the tayra and Boa constrictor the members of the troop showed little fear and caution, even though these animals threatened the monkeys.

In contrast, after being frightened by a male ornate hawk-eagle the monkeys screamed intensely only once, then hid quietly, some descending to the ground to sneak away.

[38] Also, the shock-headed capuchin, C. cuscinus, is found only is a small part of the SW Colombian Amazon and probably should be classified as "vulnerable" for the country.