The brown violetear is a large hummingbird that breeds at middle elevations in the mountains in Central America, and western and northern South America (primarily the Andes and the tepuis), with isolated populations on Trinidad and in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The breeding habitat is forest at altitudes between 400 and 1600 m, but the brown Violet-ear will spread widely into the lowlands when not nesting. It is replaced at higher altitudes by its relative, the lesser violetear, but their ranges overlap widely.