The Atlantic Royal Flycatcher occurs in the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil. It usually keeps its crest flat, but the crest has different colors in males and females when raised.
The upperparts are brown, with a bright cinnamon rump and tail, a whitish throat, and ochre-buff underparts. When raised, the crest is red, black, and blue in males; yellow replaces red in females.
At Intervales State Park, all 23 nests found across five breeding seasons were suspended over streams. The streams in the study were about 4 m wide and ran through continuous forest.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.