Anguilla, Antigua And Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada (B), Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica (NB), Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St Kitts And Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, USA (B), Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (NB).
Vagrant to Greenland, Spain.
Breeds in south-eastern Canada (south-eastern Ontario) and eastern USA from Minnesota, eastern Nebraska and eastern Texas east, discontinuously, to New Hampshire region and South Carolina (largely excluding Gulf and south-eastern Atlantic coastal areas and Florida). Migrates to Middle America from northern Mexico south to Panama (in smaller numbers to northern Colombia and Venezuela) and to Caribbean (mainly Greater Antilles).
 
Population
Estimated population is 260,000 (2010).
Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla) [XC70032]
by Jelmer Poelstra from Stokes State Forest, NJ, United States (call)
Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla) [XC362437]
by Eric Hough from Crum Woods meadow, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States (song)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Forms a species pair with Northern Waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis) and sometimes regarded as constituting a superspecies, but overlap in ranges occurs in southern Canada (southern Ontario) and north-eastern USA.