It inhabits humid lowland and montane tropical and subtropical forest in bushes and trees along forest streams. It needs good vegetation cover, but can survive in secondary growth. It breeds in streams, with the eggs laid on leaves overhanging the water. After hatching, the larvae fall into the streams, where they complete their development. In Costa Rica, this species is known to tolerate substantial water pollution and habitat alteration.

This species was previously thought to be a widespread species, occurring in Guerrero and eastern Puebla and Veracruz in southern Mexico, south through Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama) to Colombia (in the Pacific lowlands south to Valle del Cauca, in the Middle Magdalena Valley, and on the western slopes of the Cordillera Oriental). Since the previous assessment, however, many records have been reassigned to other species on the basis of DNA, calls, and morphology. Mendoza-Henao et al. (2020) re-delimited the species, partitioning Hyalinobatrachium viridissimum out of former Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize to northwestern Honduras) and moving South American records to Hyalinobatrachium tatayoi. Records from Venezuela are now assigned to Hyalinobatrachium guairarepanense (Señaris 2001, Barrio-Amorós 2004).

This species' geographic range now spans the Mosquitia region of eastern Honduras and Nicaragua, and southwards in the Tilarán range and Central Valley in Costa Rica, from 25–1,740 m asl (Mendoza-Henao et al. 2020).

Conservation Actions In-Place
It occurs in many protected areas throughout its range.