Also known as the Olive Tufted Flycatcher, this tyrant flycatcher is somewhat local but fairly common over the east slope of the Andes, from northern Peru south to northwest Bolivia. Its altitudinal range spans 1000 to 2300 m, and the species inhabits lower and middle levels of montane forests and their borders. The Olive Flycatcher was sometimes considered conspecific with the wholly allopatric Tufted Flycatcher (Mitrephanes phaeocercus), which is distributed further north. Compared to the latter species, the Olive Flycatcher is uniformly olive-colored with a conspicuous crest, and two pale grayish-olive wingbars and a yellowish belly. It occasionally joins mixed-species flocks, but generally remains apart from them. Some aspects of the species’ behavior recall those of pewees Contopus.