Carollia brevicauda feeds on a variety of fruits, which vary according to the region and season (summarized by Gardner 1977), although it depends on the fruit of Piper for the major portion of its diet, but it also gleans foliage for insects, its diet is supplemented by nectar in the dry season. It forages near moist areas, being taken most frequently in tropical evergreen forests. It is often one of the most numerous bats in lowlands rainforests, and it seems most common in disturbed areas. It uses the understory vegetation levels, where it concentrates its feeding on the fruits of shrubs and treelets, especially the slender green, candle like fruits of plants of the genus Piper. Because of its high numbers, this bat is one of the most important seed dispersers for Piper and many other plants with small fruits (Eisenberg 1989, Emmons and Feer 1997). It inhabits a wide range of forest, forest fragments and savannas.

This species occurs throughout east Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and north and east Brazil, it is also found on Trinidad (Simmons 2005). Range restricted to north South America and east Panama by Baker et al. (2002), who referred all Central American records (from west Panama north through Mexico) to C. sowelli.

Further systematic studies necessary to clarify distinction between different Carollia spp. The species occurs in a number of protected areas throughout its range.