Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama.
Eastern Honduras southern on Caribbean coast to Panama (sight record also in Veraguas, on Pacific slope of Panama), and from Colombia (northern base of western and central Andes east to middle Magdalena Valley) southern on Pacific coast to north-western Ecuador (Esmeraldas and Pichincha), also Gorgona I, in Colombia.
 
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Tawny-crested Tanager (Tachyphonus delatrii) [XC654601]
by Joost van Bruggen from El Valle de Ant\u00f3n, Cocl\u00e9 Province, Panama (song)
Tawny-crested Tanager (Tachyphonus delatrii) [XC274012]
by Peter Boesman from Braulio Carrillo NP, Quebrada Gonzalez HQ, Las Palmas trail, Heredia, Costa Rica (call)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Colour and size of coronal patch variable, but not in any seemingly systematic way, and naming of geographical subspecies unwarranted.