The species inhabits a wide variety of habitats, depending on the region, including boreal coniferous forests, temperate deciduous woodland, tropical and subtropical cloud forest, gallery forest and semi-open savanna woodland, from sea level to 2,700 m. Outside the breeding season, North American birds can be found in almost any terrain, including urban areas with trees.

This species has a large, discontinuous range in the Americas. It occurs from Alaska (USA) and Canada south to Panama, and populations are also found in the West Indies, in hills and mountains from Venezuala and Colombia through Ecuador and Peru to western Bolivia, and from southern Brazil through Uruguay and Paraguay to south-east Bolivia and northern Argentina.