Silvery marmosets spend most (if not all) of their lives in trees, upon which they can use their specialized claws and teeth to extract nutritious tree saps and gums. Some research suggests that they are, nonetheless, more “neophilic”—interested in and willing to explore novel tasks or situations—than primate species with similar degrees of specialization.

Silvery marmosets are diurnal, meaning they are active during the day and sleep through the night. They wake up around sunrise and soon begin foraging in the trees, where they’ll spend most (usually all) of the day. Marmosets avoid predation by keeping to tree cover. In the early wet and late dry seasons, they forage through larger ranges than at other times of the year, and depending on the time of day, they’ll prioritize different parts of the forest. Flooded areas, for instance, are good for resting, social activities, and looking for insects; terra firme forests (empty of flooded rivers) are replete with fruiting trees, especially in the early rainy season. Generally, though, they stick to secondary growth regions—but since these regions emerge only after human agriculture or logging has cleared an old-growth forest, one should hesitate to think of that preference as somehow innate.

At night, silvery marmosets may sleep in one of several sites distributed across their home range. Usually, they’ll pick one closer to major food patches, and if a gum tree is nearby (it often is), they’ll feed on it before sleeping and just after awakening. Case studies suggest that site preferences depend on the pattern of trees, proximity of feeding sites, position inside the home range, and ranging behavior of the day. Vine tangles or tree holes often make for good nests, but primatologists have also seen them use unusual spots like hanging fallen tree trunks and dead palm trees covered by lianas (long-stemmed vines).