The Brown Violet-ear is distributed from Belize and Guatemala in Central America to Colombia and south to northern Bolivia and east through Venezuela to the Guyanas and Roraima in northern Brazil. There is a disjunct population at the Serra Sincorá, Bahia in eastern Brazil. For a distribution map see Birdlife International. It is found in the canopy and edges of humid forest, coffee plantations and shrubby clearings at between 100 and 2,800 metres.

It feeds on the nectar of flowers with fairly shallow corollas and on insects. It is quite aggressive towards smaller hummingbirds.