This small bird inhabits Brazil’s eastern Atlantic Forest. Field observations report male flank tufts and feeding and nesting activity at forest edges.
The paper describes males in the genus as having long, silky purple-to-lilac flank tufts, which are white or absent in females. A breeding observation of I. pipra also recorded a male expanding the tufts.
At Ubatuba in São Paulo, two nests were observed at a clearing edge surrounded by abandoned shade-cocoa plantation and Atlantic Forest. At one nest, the female gathered lichens while the male stayed nearby.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.