This toucanet is endemic to Atlantic Forest in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. It usually lives alone or in pairs in humid forest and eats fruit, along with invertebrates and small vertebrates.
The main plumage color is green, and the upper bill has unique transverse black markings. Adult males have a black head and breast; females have chestnut to rufous head and breast. Both sexes have green bare skin around the eye and bright red undertail coverts. Juveniles are duller, and bill markings do not appear until about two months of age.
It occurs in large, dense, humid Atlantic Forest patches. Birds are usually alone or in male-female pairs in the middle forest strata, but may gather in small groups when fruit is abundant. Juçara palm fruit is a main food; they also eat other fruit, invertebrates, and small vertebrates.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.