Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela.
Population
Estimated population is 5,000,000 - 50,000,000 (2010).
Buff-throated Saltator (Saltator maximus) [XC243061]
by John V. Moore from El Oro: Reserva Buenaventura 9 km WNW Pi\u00f1as, Ecuador (song)
Buff-throated Saltator (Saltator maximus) [XC722552]
by Jacob Wijpkema from Vaca Diez, Departamento del Beni, Bolivia (dawn song, subsong)
Subspecies
Affiliations of genus uncertain. Recent molecular-genetic analyses indicate that it does not belong with present family, and may be better placed with tanagers (Thraupidae). Some subspecies have been considered perhaps to merit treatment as separate species, but an orderly geographical sequence of characters across the species' range is apparent.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
gigantodes Cabanis, 1851 - Caribbean slope of Mexico from Veracruz south to northern Oaxaca and Tabasco.
magnoides Lafresnaye, 1844 - Southern Mexico (Chiapas, southern Campeche, southern Quintana Roo) northern Guatemala and Belize southern on Caribbean slope to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and north-western Panama.
intermedius Lawrence, 1864 - South-western Costa Rica east to Canal Zone of Panama.
iungens Griscom, 1929 - Eastern Panama and north-western Colombia (east to lower R Cauca).
maximus (Müller, 1776) - Colombia and Venezuela east to the Guianas, south to western and eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, Brazil (Amazonia south to southern Mato Grosso. Also eastern coast from Pernambuco south to Rio de Janeiro) and north-eastern Bolivia (Bení and Santa Cruz).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet