Inhabits a variety of wetlands, including marshes, scrub-shrub wetlands and lakes with emergent shoreline growth; non-breeding habitat is similar but less selective, occasionally in brackish coastal marshes, and forages in dry grasslands (Lowther et al. 2020).

Breeds in the USA and Canada. Non-breeding range primarily includes southern USA, Mexico, and Cuba, but also found in Bahamas, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

Conservation Actions Underway
None is known, although this species occurs in numerous protected areas.

Conservation Actions Proposed
Some recommendations outlined by Lowther et al. (2020) including: preserve important, large, freshwater habitats; develop standardised survey methodologies, conduct detailed studies on the breeding biology and other aspects of its ecology (including migration routes), conduct research into threats or other factors that regulate populations, develop wetland management strategies that benefit nesting, migrant, and wintering birds, and conduct research into the impacts of contaminants in the birds and their eggs.