The dusky-backed jacamar is 16.5 to 18 cm (6.5 to 7.1 in) long. Males weigh 18.5 g (0.65 oz) and females 16 g (0.56 oz). The male's upper parts, chest, and flanks are dark greenish black that appears bluish when worn. Its cheeks are sooty, the throat white or whitish, and the belly and breast cinnamon. The female is similar but its throat is buff.
The dusky-backed jacamar is found in Panama's Darién Province and the adjoining and nearby northern Chocó, northern Antioquia, and southern Córdoba Departments of Colombia. There is also an isolated population in northern Bolívar Department, Colombia, that at one time was thought to be a subspecies. It inhabits humid primary and secondary forest. It is found in edges, such as by clearings and along streams, rather than the forest interior. In elevation it ranges up to 700 m (2,300 ft).
The dusky-backed jacamar preys on a variety of flying insects that it catches by flying from a perch. It often perches and hunts in pairs or small family groups.
Though the dusky-backed jacamar is assumed to nest in burrows in earth banks, there is no documentation of its breeding phenology. Birds in breeding condition were noted during January and February in Colombia.
The IUCN has assessed the dusky-backed jacamar as being of Least Concern. It is scarce overall but locally common in its small range, though it "olerates, or perhaps even prefers, a degree of habitat disturbance". The isolated Bolívar population might be vulnerable to habitat destruction.
