Western and south-eastern Ecuador (southern from Manabí, including coastal islands, also southern Zamora-Chinchipe) and western and northern Peru (Tumbes south to Lima, also arid Marañón Valley in Cajamarca, Amazonas and La Libertad). Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Tawny-crowned Pygmy-tyrant (Euscarthmus meloryphus).