The Shining Flycatcher is distributed in and around Papua New Guinea, in northern Australia and along the east coast of Australia in the state of Queensland. It is found in forest, swampy forest, paperbark Melaleuca forest and other habitats close to water.

The nests are fairly conspicuous and are made of a tight cup woven into a fork on a tree or bush normally over water. It is decorated with flakes of bark and lichen.

There is additional information available via Avibase.

It has a wide variety of vocalisations from trills and whistles to croaks.