Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, St Pierre and Miquelon (P), Turks and Caicos Islands, USA (B).
Vagrant to Greenland, Jamaica.
Population
Estimated population is 40,000,000 (2010).
Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii) [XC382748]
by Paul Marvin from Island Lake, Elko County, Nevada, United States (song)
Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii) [XC337067]
by Nick Komar from Prairie Green, Kane County, Illinois, United States (flight call)
Subspecies
Genus generally considered to be closely related to Passerella and Zonotrichia. Unpublished molecular studies suggest close relationship with Xenospiza and some of the grassland sparrows (Passerculus, some Ammodramus, Pooecetes and Oriturus). Geographical variation of present species weak and clinal, and differences among populations obscured by individual variation. Subspecies alticola often considered to be a synonym of nominate.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
lincolnii (Audubon, 1834) - Breeds from north-western Alaska east through Canadian boreal forest (southern from north-central Yukon and central Northwest Territories) to Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and southern in USA to central Washington, northern Idaho, north-western Montana, northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, central Michigan, western New York and central Maine. Winters in region from southern USA (southern from northern California, southern Nevada and Arizona east to northern Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, central Missouri, southern Kentucky and northern Georgia, also Florida) south to southern Mexico and Guatemala, rarely south to Honduras, Panama and Greater Antilles.
gracilis (Kittlitz, 1858) - Breeds coastal southern Alaska and western Canada (central British Columbia, rarely Vancouver I). Winters in south-western USA (central California and Arizona) and north-western and north-central Mexico (Baja California, Sonora and Coahuila).
alticola (Miller, AH & McCabe, 1935) - Breeds in mountains of western USA from north-central Oregon east to south-central Montana and north-central Wyoming, south to California (inner coastal ranges to San Jacinto Mts), west-central Nevada, south-western Utah, east-central Arizona and northern New Mexico. Non-breeding from central California, Arizona and southern Texas south through Mexico (except Yucatán Peninsula) to Guatemala and El Salvador (rare).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet