It occurs in tropical forest, mainly in the lowlands and foothills, although it occurs up to 1,450 m in Central America and it has been recorded at 1,650 m in Bolivia (Healy et al. 2020). It is likely to avoid disturbed habitat, preferring larger areas of intact primary forest (Lees et al. 2012; Herrera-Rosales et al. 2014), although it does occur in secondary forest (P. Salaman in litt. 2020). It feeds mainly on arthropods, including spiders, centipedes and insects (Buainain and Forcato 2016).

Neomorphus geoffroyi has a wide but disjunct distribution in the Neotropics, occurring from Honduras, south through Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to Colombia; in western Amazonia from Colombia through Ecuador to northern Peru; in the Atlantic forest of Brazil; and across Brazilian Amazonia to eastern Peru and northern Bolivia.
There are seven subspecies. N. G. salvini occurs in eastern Hondurus and Nicaragua, along the Caribbean slope in Costa Rica, throughout Panama and into northeast Colombia. N. g. aequatorialis occurs in Colombia (West Caquetá), eastern Ecuador, and northern Peru (Healy et al. 2020). N. g. amazonicus occurs in Amazonian Brazil, south of the river Amazon, including in Pará, Rondônia, Mato Grosso, and Maranhão (Healy et al. 2020). N. .g. squamiger occurs in Pará, Brazil, between the rivers Madeira and Xingu. N. g. australis occurs in southeastern Peru and northwestern Bolivia (Healy et al. 2020). N. g. geoffroyi is found in Bahia, Brazil, where it may be extinct from much of its former range (Silva et al. 2018), but it was recorded in camera trap photographs in the Boqueirão da Onça region, Sento Sé municipality in 2007 and 2009 (Roos et al. 2012). N. g. dulcis occurs in the Atlantic forest in Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais and historically in Rio de Janeiro (Erritzøe et al. 2012; Mallet-Rodrigues and Pacheco 2015); it currently appears to be restricted to three protected areas (Sooretama Biological Reserve, Vale Nature Reserve and Rio Doce State Park; Texeira et al. 2014; Marques et al. 2018).

Conservation and research actions underway
It is listed as nationally Near Threatened in Ecuador (Freile et al. 2018) and Vulnerable in Brazil (ICMBio 2018). Taxon squamiger is considered a full species and listed as Vulnerable in Brazil (MMA 2014). It is found in many protected areas throughout its extensive range. Its habitat is well protected in around ten sites in Costa Rica and in almost a dozen sites in Panama (P. Salaman in litt. 2020). The species is included in the National Action Plans for the Birds of the Caatinga (ICMBio 2015), the Atlantic Forest (ICMBio 2017) and Amazonia (ICMBio 2014), which include actions to reduce the loss and degradation of habitat for target species.

Conservation and research actions proposed
Study its ecological requirements and its response to forest loss and degradation. Survey potentially suitable habitat across its range to gain a better understanding of its remaining range and population size.
Expand the protected area network to effectively protect IBAs. Effectively resource and manage existing and new protected areas. Conservation on private lands, through expanding market pressures for sound land management and preventing forest clearance on lands unsuitable for agriculture, is also essential (Soares-Filho et al. 2006).