Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos Islands, USA (B), Venezuela.
Vagrant to St Pierre and Miquelon (NB).
Breeds southern Canada (east-central Alberta east to southern Manitoba, extreme western and south-eastern Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, occasionally Prince Edward I) and eastern USA (from central North Dakota, north-eastern and south-western South Dakota, central Nebraska, north-eastern Colorado, Oklahoma and southern Texas); probably also extreme northern Mexico (north-eastern Coahuila). Winters in south-eastern USA (southern Florida), and southern Mexico through Central America to northern Colombia and north-western Venezuela.
 
Population
Estimated population is 7,500,000 (2010).
Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) [XC139964]
by Paul Driver from Three Lakes WMA, Kenansville, Osceola, Florida, United States (song)
Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) [XC636905]
by David A. Brinkman from Parish Governing Authority District 5 (near Washington), St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States (call)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA suggested that closest relatives are Yucatan Flycatcher (Myiarchus yucatanensis), Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens) and Brown-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus tyrannulus), but relationships within this group not resolved. Birds from Massachusetts separated as subspecies boreus on basis of bill size, but geographical variation considered clinal.