Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, USA (B), Venezuela.
Population
Estimated population is 1,000,000 (2020) and increasing.
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans) [XC559241]
by Peter de Rouw from Privanzas Los Mochis Ahome, Sinaloa, Mexico (song)
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans) [XC674960]
by Thomas G. Graves from Bird and Butterfly Garden, Tijuana River Valley Regional Park, San Diego Co, California, United States (call, flight call)
Subspecies
Subspecies latirostis and angustirostris (sometimes synonymized with former) considered a separate species by some authors. Variation clinal: extent of white in wings and on belly generally decreasing north to south; white in wings abruptly increasing south of Isthmus of Panama, thence extent of white, and size, increasing towards south.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
semiater (Swainson, 1827) - Western USA (south from coastal Oregon, south-east to western and central Texas) and western Mexico (Baja California, and south in interior to Isthmus of Tehuantepec).
nigricans (Swainson, 1827) - North-eastern, central and southern Mexico.
aquaticus P. L. Sclater and Salvin, 1859 - Mexico (south of Isthmus of Tehuantepec) south to central Honduras and north-western Nicaragua.
amnicola Bangs, 1902 - Costa Rica and western Panama.
angustirostris von Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1896 - Central and eastern Panama and northern Venezuela south through Andes to central Bolivia.
latirostris (Cabanis & Heine, 1860) - Mountains and foothills of central and southern Bolivia and north-western Argentina.