The species habitat is variable, and it has been recorded from dense marshy vegetation (including rushes, reedbeds and floating vegetation), swamps, flooded rice fields, alfalfa fields, wheat fields, flooded pasture and other wet grasslands, open grassy savanna, crop stubble, brackish coastal Spartina species dominated grasslands and humid woodland edge, mainly in the lowlands at elevations up to 1,500 m (Taylor and van Perlo 1998).

This species has been recorded in Colombia (Meta and Tolima, both away from typical habitat), Venezuela (twice, in 1914 or 1916 in Mérida and 1954 or 1960 in Portuguesa), Guyana (once in 1907), Brazil (three sites in São Paulo state, with recent and repeated sightings at Taubaté, and two in Rio Grande do Sul, and a dispersing bird in Parana), Paraguay (in Asuncion, Presidente Hayes, San Pedro, Concepción and Alto Paraná), Uruguay (six localities, from Durazno in 1915 and 1918, Colonia [where breeding has been confirmed], Canalones, Montevideo, Maldonado and at sea off Rocha in 1875) and Argentina (at least 10 records from Formosa and Corrientes south to Patagonia, with most records from the vicinity of the Parana river valley and delta) (Collar et al. 1992, Taylor and van Perlo 1998, Martinez et al. 1997, eBird 2025). The only record for Bolivia is a sighting of one bird at the Beni Biological Station in 1997, over 1,000 km from the closest previously known locality in Paraguay (Brace et al. 1998). Its distribution is certainly not fully understood, with birds possibly either undertaking north-south migrations or occasionally erupting large distances in a random pattern from their centres of distribution in north and east South America (Collar et al. 1992). The former is unlikely since the species occurs in east Brazil from April-August and March-June in Paraguay and Uruguay, and Venezuelan specimens taken in August had enlarged gonads (Taylor and van Perlo 1998). The latter is much more likely, but there is no proper evidence to suggest that the centres of distribution are in tropical grasslands, and it is also possible that the species' distribution is wider and more continuous than currently thought (Taylor and van Perlo 1998).

Conservation Actions Underway
The species is known to occur in three protected areas in Argentina: Bañados del Río Dulce (Córdoba), Otamendi Strict Nature Reserve and Reserva Municipal de Biosfera Mar Chiquita (both Buenos Aires). The Colombian and Bolivian sites, and one Venezuelan site (in Mérida) are also protected (Taylor and van Perlo 1998, Wege and Long 1995).