Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama.
South-eastern Mexico (eastern Tabasco, north-eastern Chiapas) and Belize southern on Caribbean slope to Nicaragua, then both slopes of Costa Rica and Panama through western Colombia (east to lower and middle Magdalena Valley, south to northern Caldas) to south-western Ecuador (El Oro).
 
Population
Estimated population is 50,000 - 499,999 (2010).
Purple-crowned Fairy (Heliothryx barroti) [XC261778]
by Olaf Jahn from Esmeraldas: Playa de Oro, village and vicinity, R\u00edo Santiago, Ecuador (song, display song of male)
Purple-crowned Fairy (Heliothryx barroti) [XC632044]
by Albert Lastukhin from Gamboa Woodlot, Panama (song)
Subspecies
Forms superspecies with Black-eared Fairy (Heliothryx auritus), with which sometimes regarded as conspecific. There is a narrow zone of distributional overlap exists in north-western Colombia, but both taxa maintain their distinctness.