Habitat
In breeding season, deciduous woodland, gallery forest and riparian thickets. From sea-level - 1,950 m. In non-breedind season (June - September), forest-edge, second growth and river-edge forest.
Breeds western slope of Andes from western Ecuador (Pichincha, Azuay, El Oro and Loja) south to north-western Peru (Lambayeque and La Libertad); migrates to eastern slope and base of Andes (very locally Amazonas, Cajamarca and San Martín) and eastern lowlands of Ucayali and Madre de Dios, in Peru.
 
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010) and decreasing.
Black-and-white Tanager (Conothraupis speculigera) [XC242459]
by Niels Krabbe from Azuay: upper Yunguilla Valley, Ecuador (song)
Black-and-white Tanager (Conothraupis) [XC439398]
by Peter de Rouw from Rumihuilco, Via agua de hierr, Vilacabamba, Ecuador (song)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Placement of genus in present family has been questioned. Has been suggested that this species could be close to genus Sporophila, currently in Emberizidae, or that bill shape is more like that of a fringillid finch. On the other hand, has been suggested that it is conspecific with Cone-billed Tanager (Conothraupis mesoleuca), but recent evidence points to the contrary.