Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Blue Dacnis (Dacnis cayana) [XC326089]
by Kent Livezey from Porto Seguro, Bahia, Brazil (call)
Blue Dacnis (Dacnis cayana) [XC859394]
by JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA from Rio dos Frades, Trancoso, Bahia, Brazil (call)
Subspecies
This genus and Cyanerpes were previously regarded as members of a separate family, Coerebidae, but later placed in present family on basis of similarities in skull anatomy; molecular phylogenies indicate that the two genera are sisters and form a monophyletic group with Tersina.
The following 8 subspecies are recognised:
ultramarina Lawrence, 1864 - Caribbean slope from extreme eastern Honduras south to Panama and north-western Colombia (on western side of Gulf of Urabá).
callaina Bangs, 1905 - Western Costa Rica and south-western Panama (Chiriquí).
napaea Bangs, 1898 - Northern Colombia from Santa Marta region south to eastern side of Gulf of Urabá and across lower Magdalena Valley.
caerebicolor P. L. Sclater, 1851 - Northern Colombia (lower Cauca Valley and middle and upper Magdalena Valley).
baudoana Meyer de Schauensee, 1946 - Pacific coast of western Colombia (from Baudó Mts) south to western Ecuador (to at least Pichincha, perhaps formerly south to Guayas).
cayana (Linnaeus, 1766) - Eastern Colombia (eastern from Meta and Arauca), Venezuela (in Maracaibo region, and generally east of Andes and south of R Orinoco), Trinidad, the Guianas, and Brazil (except southern and east).
glaucogularis von Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1896 - Southern Colombia (Caquetá and Putumayo), eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru and northern and eastern Bolivia.
paraguayensis Chubb, C, 1910 - Eastern and southern Brazil (Maranhío and Ceará south to central Mato Grosso and Rio Grande do Sul), eastern Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina (Misiones).