Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay (B), USA (B), Venezuela.
Population
Estimated population is 20,000,000 (2010).
Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis) [XC359798]
by Dimas Pioli from Falcon County Park (near Falcon State Park), Starr Co, Texas, United States (flight call)
Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis) [XC688762]
by JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA from Rancho Tierra Colorada, Mexico (alarm call)
Subspecies
The following 7 subspecies are recognised:
insularis Nelson, 1898 - Tres Marías Is (off western Mexico).
merrilli Sennett, 1888 - Extreme southern USA and north-eastern Mexico.
yucatanensis Nelson, 1901 - Western and eastern Mexico south to Belize and central Guatemala.
intercedens Griscom, 1929 - Southern Guatemala south to Costa Rica and western Panama.
gilvus Bangs, 1902 - Panama and northern Colombia, perhaps to western Venezuela.
albicollis (Gmelin, 1789) - Eastern and southern Venezuela, Trinidad, the Guianas, northern and north-eastern Brazil. Also (possibly this race) eastern and southern Colombia and Ecuador south to northern Bolivia.
derbyanus Gould, 1838 - Central and southern Brazil south to north-eastern Argentina.