It inhabits humid forest and tropical dry forest (in the north of the range) in hilly areas typically between 75 m and 800 m above sea level, but it has been recorded up to 1,200 m. There is at least one record from tropical dry forest (Strewe et al. 2010). It has been recorded in secondary growth forest and forest where timber extraction has occurred (see Ochoa et al. 2016), and some recent studies have found a preference for more disturbed areas where hunting pressure is lower, rather than intact forest where hunting is frequent (Eschucha et al. 2021, Valencia et al. 2023). A GIS study of the species' distribution and habitat in the north of Cordillera Central in Antioquia found that the species required forest patches of at least 3 km² (Melo-Vásquez et al. 2008), though Cortes et al. (2025) calculate that intact blocks of at least 10 km² are required.

It breeds in the dry season, nesting in December-March, with parties of adults and chicks observed in March-August (Cuervo and Salaman 1999, A. Cuervo in litt. 1999, P.G.W. Salaman in litt. 1999, 2000). Two breeding seasons have been recorded in the El Paujíl Bird Reserve, one from December to March and another from July to September (Urueña 2008b). It feeds on fruit, shoots, invertebrates, and perhaps even carrion (Cuervo and Salaman 1999, Quevedo et al. 2005, A. Cuervo in litt. 1999, P.G.W. Salaman in litt. 1999, 2000). One recent survey recorded the consumption of seeds from a total of 15 different plant species. A terrestrial crab was also consumed. The species forages directly on the forest floor, and has never been observed foraging in a tree (Urueña 2008a). Roost sites, situated in foliage in trees, are near feeding areas and are used for several days (Hirschfeld 2008). 

There is an estimated continuing decline in the area, extent and quality of the habitat. For the mapped extant range of the species, rates of forest cover loss have been equivalent to 21–25% over the past three generations based on forest cover loss data from 2000–2022 (data from Global Forest Watch 2025), while recent rates have shown an increase in the rate of loss: using the average annual rate between 2016 to 2023 would equate to a loss of between 26–30% over three generations (data from Global Forest Watch 2025). A separate assessment of a large area in the north-west Andean region calculated a reduction in suitable area of 38.6% between 1986 and 2002 but also recorded a dramatic increase in fragments smaller than 10 km², from 28 to 2,180 fragments (Melo-Vásquez et al. 2008). Negret et al. (2021) projected rates of deforestation for 2015-2040 equivalent to a 34% reduction over three generations. Since the peace accord in 2016 there has also been an increase in human settlement in forested areas, resulting in an acceleration of fragmentation and degradation in parts of the range (Negret et al. 2017, Shanahan 2017, Cortes et al. 2025).

Having lost more than half of the suitable habitat from within its historical range (Negret et al. 2021) which stretched from the base of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta west to the Sinú valley and south in the Magdalena valley to northern Tolima in northern Colombia, and been subject to high levels of hunting, the species is now rare and found patchily in isolated small subpopulations. 

At the northern extreme of the range it was formerly frequent but is now rare and found in small and seemingly isolated populations (Strewe et al. 2010). It remains present in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (GBIF.org 2025), but in isolated small populations previously estimated to total around 104-240 individuals (Strewe et al. 2010). The northern slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta retains the largest block of intact forest and the largest population was thought to be in Tayrona National Park, estimated conservatively at 25 pairs in the 2000s (Strewe et al. 2010, Pineda-Guerrero et al. 2012). Most recent observations apparently relate to rescued captive individuals released in the Cañaveral sector to re-establish a population here, but this may not be sustainable  (Cortes et al. 2025). There continue to be records from other sectors of Tayrona NP (GBIF.org 2025), but Cortes et al. (2025) considered the total number in 2024 to be around 29 individuals. Elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta around 20 pairs were estimated to remain in the Buritaca and Guachaca River basins (Strewe et al. 2010). This investigation recorded 8 pairs in the Frío river basin, however recent intensive camera-trap survey has estimated a population of 40-60 mature individuals in 70-80 km² of suitable habitat in the Río Frío Valley (K. Waites in litt. 2025). Separately there is also a population in the area of the Besotes Eco-Park, on the southeastern slope, where a density of 1.1 individuals/km² was recorded in 2006-2007 (Mendoza et al. 2008). The latter two studies indicate that there are likely more individuals in total in this region, but the areas where the species persists are all subject to active protection and it is not appropriate to extrapolate abundance across the remaining area of habitat around the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. But the total in this region does exceed that reported by Strewe et al. (2010) and is estimated at 200-400 mature individuals.

Further south there are unconfirmed recent records from the vicinity of Cesar and three records scattered within the length of the Serranía de San Jacinto/Montes de María, in both Bolívar and Sucre (GBIF.org 2025). There is little habitat evident around the former area and the records lack documentation and if birds are present they may be of captive origin. The species previously occurred in the Montes de Maria but none had been recorded for several decades (R.S.R. Williams in litt. 1999), and none were detected during camera-trap surveys between 2018-2021 (C. Olaciregui in litt. 2025). The continuing presence of the species would be significant but the recent records may relate to released or even captive individuals. Any persisting population must be at very low densities or in rarely visited areas and the continued presence in this area remains uncertain: it could indeed have been extirpated.

Most recent records come from the northeast of Antioquia in the Magdalena River valley, the north of the Cordillera Central and the Serranía de las Quinchas (Stiles et al. 1999, Carillo et al. 2015, Eschucha et al. 2021, Valencia et al. 2023, GBIF.org 2025). Surveys conducted in 2003 suggested that the latter area is the stronghold of the population, which contributed to the establishment of El Paujíl Bird Reserve (Quevedo et al. 2005). Numbers within El Paujíl Bird Reserve have increased (D. Caro in litt. 2009) but the density remains far below the projected carrying capacity (Rodriguez et al. 2008). The population in El Paujíl Bird Reserve has most recently been estimated as 129-147 mature individuals (Cortes et al. 2025).

Further records from Antioquia are from Tarazá and Segovia and close to the Rio Nechi in the far northeast, as well as at two sites on the west slope of the Serranía de San Lucas (Cuervo and Salaman 1999, A. Cuervo in litt. 1999, L. Dávalos in litt. 1999, P.G.W. Salaman in litt. 1999, 2000). The status of the species in this area still needs clarification with very few records (GBIF.org. 2025), but Cortes et al. (2025) estimated that in 2024 there was 382 km² of forest cover remaining in blocks greater than 10 km² and postulated that there could be more than 430 mature individuals present. It is also present on the east slope of the Serranía de San Lucas in Bolivar, though extensive forest loss suggests the population here must be very small (Salaman and Donegan 2001). A population is present at the northern end of the Western Cordillera on the Serranía de San Jerónimo, within the buffer zone of the Paramillo National Park in Cordoba department (Mayorquin 2010, GBIF.org 2025), but the current status within the National Park itself is unclear due to a lack of data. Investigations in the early 2000s recorded that the species was widely hunted in the reserve, indicating that a significant population was present but that it was under severe pressure. Cortes et al. (2025) estimated that 680 km² of forest cover in blocks larger than 10 km² remains below 700 m elevation within Paramillo NP, suggesting that this could support 765 mature individuals, but the level of hunting could well make this a large overestimate.

Since the 1980s, the species has undergone a rapid population reduction across its range (Cuervo and Salaman 1999, A. Cuervo in litt. 1999, L. Dávalos in litt. 1999, P. G. W. Salaman in litt. 1999, 2000, Salaman and Donegan 2001, Cabarcas et al. 2008, D. Caro in litt. 2009, Carillo et al. 2015, Cortes et al. 2025). An estimated 7.84% of forest within the species' range was lost between 2000 and 2010 (Renjifo et al. 2016), equivalent to a 25% reduction across three generations. Similarly Global Forest Watch data record a 21-25% forest cover loss over the past three generations (data from Global Forest Watch 2025), and a maximum forest cover loss rate projected at 26-30% for the period 2017-2043. But rates of population reduction are likely to be higher than this due to hunting. Local people around the Serranía de San Lucas have recorded steep declines in this population and few individuals are thought to remain (Salaman and Donegan 2001, D. Caro in litt. 2009). Interviews with people in several villages in the buffer zone of Paramillo National Park found that the majority considered the species' population to have decreased (Cabarcas et al. 2008), since when the forest has become far more fragmented and the human population has rapidly increased.

The area of habitat, based only on the areas of range mapped as extant, was calculated at 6,240 km² (sRedList 2025), considerably higher than that estimated by Renjifo et al. (2016).

Conservation Actions Underway
The species is listed on CITES Appendix III. El Paujíl Bird Reserve was established in 2004, and now covers 3,983 ha in the Magdelena Valley, Serranía de las Quinchas (Brown 2019, Fundación ProAves 2025). There are penalties for shooting or trapping the species and Fundación ProAves employs guards to deter hunting while also restoring habitat for the species. The area of Paramillo National Park suitable for the species is still large and holds this species, but no protective measures have been implemented (P.G.W. Salaman in litt. 1999, 2000) and clearance and fragmentation is taking place rapidly Cortes et al 2025). The Bajo Cauca-Nechí Regional Reserve probably holds the species (A. Cuervo in litt. 1999, P.G.W. Salaman in litt. 1999, 2000). Los Colorados Sanctuary protects part of the Serranía de San Jacinto (R.S.R. Williams in litt. 1999), but recent effort has failed to detect the species and it appears to be extirpated (C. Olaciregui in litt. 2025). It does occur in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Tayrona National Parks (Fundación ProAves 2009, Strewe et al. 2010, GBIF.org 2025), and in the Cañon del Río Alicante and Los Besotes reserves (Quevedo et al. 2006, Ochoa et al. 2016). A planned national park at Serranía de San Lucas (Shanahan 2017) has not yet been gazetted (Cortes et al. 2025).

Camera-trapping surveys have taken place at sites in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria (K. Waites in litt. 2025) and in the Serranía de San Jacinto/Montes de María (C. Olaciregui in litt. 2025).

Studies of population density and structure, as well as habitat use and behaviour of the species have been ongoing at the El Paujíl Bird Reserve since 2004 (Urueña et al. 2006). A project to evaluate the species' ecology and threats is underway in the buffer zone of the Paramillo National Park (Ochoa et al. 2016): previous work here investigated the threat from hunting (Cabarcas et al. 2008). Since 2006, ProAves has been engaged in a variety of awareness-raising initiatives in three villages within the Serranía de las Quinchas buffer zone, including training courses on bird monitoring and for park rangers and the annual Paujil Festival (Urueña et al. 2006, Quevedo et al. 2008). Education materials have been distributed and talks have been given in schools in northeast Antioquia (Ochoa et al. 2016). Ecotourism has been developed at El Paujil Reserve with this species as the focus (Fundacion ProAves 2025). Fundación ALPEC is working to create a habitat corridor to connect protected areas in the lowlands to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta through a network of private reserves (Strewe et al. 2010). Captive populations are held in zoos in Colombia, the United States, Canada and Portugal (Species360 2024) and a reintroduction programme was initiated in 2011 with the intention that when captive breeding is successful individuals will be reintroduced (Fundacion ProAves 2011). Individuals confiscated from farms around the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta have been released in the Cañaveral sector of Tayrona National Park (Cortes et al. 2025). The species bred in captivity in Colombia for the first time in 2014 (Shanahan 2017).

Conservation Actions Proposed
Improve monitoring of the population and establish if the species persists in the Serranía de San Jacinto/Montes de María. Determine the size of the population remaining within Paramillo National Park and the Serranía de San Lucas. Protect forests on the serranías de San Lucas and de las Quinchas (Stiles et al. 1999, A. Cuervo in litt. 1999, P.G.W. Salaman in litt. 1999, 2000). Implement effective conservation measures in existing protected areas (L. Dávalos in litt. 1999, P.G.W. Salaman in litt. 1999, 2000). Establish and enforce a hunting prohibition (Urueña et al. 2006). Continue educational campaigns to limit hunting, and provide resources to replace the need for habitat conversion (A. Cuervo in litt. 1999). Establish a viable and sustainable captive population for reintroduction purposes. Carry out a reintroduction programme.