Eastern and south-eastern Bolivia, south-eastern and southern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina. Winters north to Panama, Colombia and French Guiana.
 
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Sick's Swift (Chaetura meridionalis) [XC69950]
by No\u00e9 Eiterer from Hotel Donati, Itatiaia NP, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil (call)
Sick's Swift (Chaetura meridionalis) [XC41351]
by Marcos Melo from Jujuy: 1 km N PN Calilegua: Bananal, Argentina (call, feeding calls)
Subspecies
Chaetura Andrei (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into Southern Swift (Chaetura meridionalis) with the remainder lumped with Vaux's Swift (Chaetura vauxi) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) following SACC (2005).
Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Ashy-tailed Swift (Chaetura andrei).