There is some dispute about the type locality; Euler gives "Muriahié" (Muriaé) at the northern bank of the Paraíba do Sul, Minas Gerais (Cabanis 1870), but Pacheco (1999) argued for Macaé de Cima ("Macahé" in the late 19th century) near Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro state as this was where de Roure's other bird specimens were collected. In addition, neither altitude nor habitat around Muriaé seem to agree with what is known about the species' ecology. This requires final confirmation though, as some patches of forest at the correct altitude seem to remain around Pico do Itajuru between Muriaé and Rosário de Limeira (Venturini "et al." 2005), and it is possible that the bird once occurred in the lowlands and now is restricted to higher regions simply because only there suitable habitat still exists. Based on Pacheco's arguments, the Macaé de Cima area was searched, and habitat was found to be ample in Parque Estadual dos Três Picos, though no evidence of birds was found (Venturini "et al." 2005). In any case, all but one recent records have come from Espírito Santo state.