It is found in the Amazon Basin of Brazil and Colombia; also the Orinoco River and southern Venezuela.

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.

The yellow-crested manakin's range is in a section of the northwestern Amazon Basin, (Amazonas state), and mostly the Rio Negro drainage and the adjacent northwest headwaters to the Caribbean-flowing Orinoco River of Venezuela.

Downriver it is found on the final 200 km of the south flowing Branco River of Roraima state; its contiguous section of range extends eastward, only north of and abutting the Amazon River to Amapá state's Trombetas River, the final third.

It is not found downriver eastwards beyond the Trombetas–Amazon River confluence.