The Tooth-billed Tanager ranges from the highlands of Costa Rica and Panama through the Andes and the tepui region of Venezuela. In Bolivia, the lutea group is recorded at forest edges and shade-coffee farms in the Yungas and foothills.
A northwest Peru species account describes adult males as red with gray lores. Females are yellowish-brown above and orange-yellow below, and both sexes have a thick, dusky bill.
In northwest Peru, birds forage alone or in pairs in riparian forest, semi-open habitat, agricultural edges, and orchards. In La Paz and Cochabamba, Bolivia, the mountain lutea population is rare to uncommon along semi-humid and humid forest edges, in shade-coffee farms, and in clearings with scattered trees.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.