Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela.
Extreme southern Mexico (Chiapas) south to Colombia, southern on Pacific slope to western Ecuador, and east of Andes to central Peru, northern and eastern Bolivia and southern Brazil (north-western Paraná, Mato Grosso and Sío Paulo).
 
Population
Estimated population is 100,000 - 1,000,000 (2010).
Red-throated Caracara (Ibycter americanus) [XC516935]
by Rolf A. de By from Fredberg logging road, Sipaliwini, Suriname (call)
Red-throated Caracara (Ibycter americanus) [XC728334]
by Robson Silva e Silva from Fazenda Fartura, Santana do Araguaia, Par\u00e1, Brazil (song)
Subspecies
May merit separation from Black Caracara (Daptrius ater) on grounds of differences in morphology, habitat and behaviour. Populations from Central America and south-eastern Brazil have been recognized as subspecies guatemalensis and pelzelni respectively, based primarily on size, but substantial overlap with intervening populations.