It is recorded from French Guiana; loehkeni, which the current Catalogue of Life treats as a subspecies of this species, is known from Amapá in northern Brazil. A 1990s forest survey in French Guiana captured one bird in secondary forest, while Amapá specimens of loehkeni were collected visiting flowering inga trees in 1967–1968.
Grantsau (1969) describes the underside of T. niger as nearly black in comparison with other members of the genus. The adult male holotype of the taxon then described as T. loehkeni had dark bronze-green upperparts, a black chin and throat, an ochre-red throat patch, and a pale gray-ochre belly. The adult female was similar overall but paler below, with a paler throat patch. The latter details describe the Amapá form now accepted by CoL as T. niger loehkeni.
Reynaud (1998) lists one T. niger captured in secondary forest during a 1990s mist-net survey along the Sinnamary River. This is a local record, not evidence of habitat preference or abundance. Grantsau describes scrub between forest and the Amapari River at Serra do Navio, Amapá, and records specimens of the form now called T. niger loehkeni while they visited flowering inga trees.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.