Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia.
Scattered localities from south-eastern Nigeria (Obudu and Mambilla Plateaux) and western and central Cameroon south to Equatorial Guinea, southern and eastern Gabon, PRCongo and northern Angola, east to western and southern Central African Republic, DRCongo, Uganda, extreme western Kenya, north-western Tanzania and north-western Zambia.
 
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Orange-tufted Sunbird (Cinnyris bouvieri) [XC536491]
by Brendan Sloan from Kakamega National Park, Kakamega, Kenya (song)
Orange-tufted Sunbird (Cinnyris bouvieri) [XC453408]
by Frank Lambert from Grass clearing in Kakamega Forest, Kakamega County, Kenya (call)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Genus often subsumed in Nectarinia. Has been thought perhaps to form a superspecies with Palestine Sunbird (Cinnyris osea), Oustalet's Sunbird (Cinnyris oustaleti), White-breasted Sunbird (Cinnyris talatala) and Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus). Birds from western shore of L Tanganyika, in eastern DRCongo, described as subspecies tanganyicae, but considered inadequately differentiated from birds elsewhere in species' range.