Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum) [XC94286]
by Fernand DEROUSSEN from Bosque Protector Colonso, Tena, Napo, Ecuador (song)
Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum) [XC262619]
by Olaf Jahn from Esmeraldas: Playa de Oro, village and vicinity, R\u00edo Santiago, Ecuador (call, song, calls)
Subspecies
Recent molecular-genetic data do not support monophyly of genus as currently constituted: six (including present species) of eight species sampled embedded with Tangara, a finding that makes genus Tangara paraphyletic.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
atripennis Todd, 1922 - Eastern Nicaragua south to Colombia west of Andes (including Santa Marta region) and north-western Venezuela (Maracaibo region).
violilavata (von Berlepsch & Taczanowski, 1884) - South-western Colombia (from Cerro Munchique, in Cauca) south through western Ecuador almost to Peruvian border.
melanoptera (Sclater, PL, 1857) - Eastern Colombia, Venezuela (except Maracaibo region), including Margarita I and Patos I, Trinidad, Tobago, the Guianas, and northern and central Brazil (north of R Amazon and, south of it, from R Tocantins, in eastern Pará) south to eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, northern Bolivia and central Mato Grosso.
palmarum (Wied, 1821) - Eastern Brazil (eastern from R Tocantins, south to Mato Grosso, western Paraná, and north-eastern Rio Grande do Sul), eastern Paraguay (one record in Alto Paraná) and northern Argentina (sight records in Misiones and eastern Formosa).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet