Chamaepetes unicolor is rare to locally fairly common throughout the highlands of Costa Rica and in Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro, Veraguas (Calovévora and Sante Fe) and west Coclé, west Panama^5,6. It is common (estimated density of 7.4 birds/km²) in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, Costa Rica², and large areas of suitable habitat are protected in La Amistad International Park and the Cordillera de Guanacaste⁷. This suggests that the 1994 population estimate of 800-1,000 birds in Costa Rica⁸ is too low. In Panama, it was reported as locally common in the 1930s, uncommon and local in 1971⁴, and rare to locally fairly common (e.g. in Fortuna Forest Reserve) in the 1980s⁵. The species was found to be fairly common at Cerro Pena Blanca, west of El Cope, in 2001¹⁰.