The Brown-breasted Flycatcher breeds in northeastern India and Indochina and winters in southwestern India and Sri Lanka. The Singapore account lists it as a vagrant there.
In the Singapore identification account, it has a longer bill than other Muscicapa species recorded there, a mostly pale-yellow lower mandible, white lores, and buffish breast and flanks.
The species account describes it as a forest bird that feeds in the lower levels, around eye height.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.