Distribution

Breeding Range

Figure 1. From w. and n.-central Alaska and throughout the Yukon Territory (Sinclair et al. 2003), nw. NW Territories (Mackenzie Delta, McTavish Arm; Godfrey 1986), n. Saskatchewan (L. Athabaska; http://gisweb1.serm.gov.sk.ca/imf/imf.jsp?site=birds), n. Manitoba (http://birdatlas.mb.ca/mbdata/maps.jsp), n. Ontario (McLaren 2007; http://www.birdsontario.org/atlas/maps.jsp), n. Quebec and n.-central Labrador (Nain south, and possibly in forested valleys north to Okak; Todd 1963, DMW), and Newfoundland south to s. Alaska (west to base of Alaska Peninsula), s.-central and se. British Columbia (east of coast ranges, primarily the Sub-Boreal Interior Eco-province; Campbell et al. 2001), n.-central and ne. Washington (Smith et al. 1997), Idaho (south to Little Joe River, se. of Coeur d'Alene), nw. Wyoming (Luce et al. 1999, Faulkner 2010), w. Montana, n.-central Alberta (Fed. Alberta Naturalists 2007), s. Manitoba, se. Saskatchewan (Smith 1996), ne. Minnesota (http://www.mnbba.org/blockmap/cresults.php?species=Northern%20Waterthrush), se. Wisconsin (http://www.uwgb.edu/birds/wbba/species/maps/NOWA.htm), Michigan (upper and n. lower peninsula; http://www.mibirdatlas.org/Portals/12/MBA2010/NOWAaccount.pdf), s. Ontario (see above), extreme ne. Ohio (Peterjohn and Rice 1991), e. West Virginia (Buckelew and Hall 1994), w. Maryland (Coskren 2010), extreme nw. Virginia, s.-central Pennsylvania (all of Pennsylvania except sw. and se.; Gross 2012), nw. New Jersey (mostly northern highlands but possible in the central Pine Barrens (Walsh et al. 1999), Connecticut, Rhode Island, and most of Massachusetts (all except Cape Cod and the Islands, Boston and suburbs, and extreme s.-central; most numerous in the Berkshires; Arvidson 2003).

Isolated populations breed in sw. Oregon (Klamath and Lane counties; Gilligan et al. 1994 Gilligan, J. D., M. Rogers, A. Smith, and A. Contreras (1994). Birds of Oregon: Status and Distribution. Cinclus Publications, McMinnville, Oregon, USA. Close ), se. Wyoming and n.-central Colorado (Kingery 1998, Bennett 2003), n. North Dakota (Turtle Mtns., Pembina Hills, Devil's Lake; Stewart 1975b Stewart, R. E. (1975). Breeding Birds of North Dakota. Tri-College Center for Environmental Studies, Fargo, North Dakota, USA. Close ), and se. Saskatchewan (http://gisweb1.serm.gov.sk.ca/imf/imf.jsp?site=birds ).

See details for s. Québec (where range includes Anticosti I. and the Magdalen Is.) in Lemieux et al. 1996.

Winter Range

Figure 2. Winters in Mexico in s. Baja California Sur, and from s. Sonora and Sinaloa on the Pacific Slope, s. Tamaulipas on the Caribbean slope, and the Lerma Valley in the interior, south through Central America to Panama (including the Pearl Is.; Wetmore et al. 1984 Wetmore, A., R. F. Pasquier, and S. L. Olson (1984). The Birds of the Republic of Panama, Part 4-Passeriformes: Hirundinidae (Swallows) to Fringillidae (Finches). Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 150, Part 4. Close , Ridgely and Gwynne 1989 Ridgely, R. S., and J. Gwynne (1989). A Guide to the Birds of Panama, with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras. 2nd Edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close , Howell and Webb 1995 Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb (1995). A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press, New York, New York, USA. Close ).

In n. South America winters throughout Colombia to 2,000 m (Hilty and Brown 1986 Hilty, S. L., and W. L. Brown (1986). A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Close ) and Venezuela (tropical zone including islands Los Roques, La Orchila, Los Testigos; De Schauensee and Phelps 1978 Meyer de Schauensee, R., and W. H. Phelps (1978). A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ), east to French Guiana (Renaudier 2010), south to n. Brazil (Rio Paru de Leste, n. Pará, and Jaú National Park, n. central Amazonas; Borges and Almeida 2011), and west to n. Ecuador (Esmeraldas, Napo, and Pastaza; Guevara et al. 2008) and occasionally to Quito, sw. Ecuador and ne. Peru (mouth of Rio Curaray, Loreto) (Ridgely and Tudor 1989 Ridgely, R. S., and G. Tudor (1989). The Birds of South America. Volume 1: The Oscine Passerines. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, USA. Close , Berg 1994).

Winters commonly in Bermuda (Amos 1991 Amos, E. J. R. (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Bermuda. Corncrake, Warwick, Bermuda. Close ) and in the Caribbean throughout the Bahamas, Greater and Lesser Antilles (except casual to uncommon on smaller islands; Raffaele 1998, Garrido and Kirkconnell 2000, Latta et al. 2006), and the Netherland Antilles (Voous 1985 Voous, K. H. (1985). "Additions to the avifauna of Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire, south Caribbean." In Neotropical ornithology., edited by P. A. Buckley, M. S. Foster, E. G. Morton, R. S. Ridgely and F. G. Buckley, 247-254. Ornithol. Monogr. no. 36. Close ) to Tobago and Trinidad. In winter very rare to uncommon in southern half of Florida peninsula (Robertson and Woolfenden 1992a Robertson, W. B., Jr., and G. E. Woolfenden (1992). Florida Bird Species: an Annotated List. Florida Ornithological Society Special Publication 6, Florida Ornithological Society, Gainesville, FL, USA. Close ) and rare along the Gulf Coast (Root 1988b Root, T. (1988). Atlas of Wintering North American Birds: An Analysis of Christmas Bird Count Data. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, USA. Close ).

Extralimital Records

Casual on Wrangel I. and Chukotski Peninsula (e. Siberia) and Greenland (American Ornithologists' Union 1983 American Ornithologists' Union (1983) Check-list of North American Birds. Sixth edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC, USA. Close , Flint et al. 1984 Flint, V. E., R. L. Boehme, Y. V. Kostin, and A. A. Kuznetsov (1984). A Field Guide to birds of the U.S.S.R. including Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ). As of 2012 at least eight fall records from sw. England and s. Ireland (late Aug-3d wk Oct), and one Apr record from the Channel I. (Alström and Colston 1991 Alström, P., and P. Colston (1991). A Field Guide to the Rare Birds of Britain and Europe. Harper Collins, London, United Kingdom. Close , Cramp and Perrins 1994b Cramp, S., and C. M. Perrins, Editors (1994). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 9. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , British Birds Rarities Committee 2010, Surfbirds 2013). Alström and Colston (Alström and Colston 1991 Alström, P., and P. Colston (1991). A Field Guide to the Rare Birds of Britain and Europe. Harper Collins, London, United Kingdom. Close ) also reported a Sep 1955 record for Ouessant, France, and there are recent records from Corvo I., Azores (Oct 2010 and 2012) and Vlieland I., Netherlands (fall 2010; Surfbirds 2013).

Because of deforestation, some breeding range lost in w. Pennsylvania (Gross 2012), w. New York, and lower peninsula of Michigan (Hull 1991 Hull, C. N. (1991). "Northern Waterthrush." In The atlas of breeding birds of Michigan., edited by R. Brewer, G. A. McPeek and Jr R. J. Adams, 436. East Lansing: Michigan State Univ. Press. Close ). Range is apparently expanding southward in the Cascade Mtns., Washington to sw. Oregon (Gilligan et al. 1994 Gilligan, J. D., M. Rogers, A. Smith, and A. Contreras (1994). Birds of Oregon: Status and Distribution. Cinclus Publications, McMinnville, Oregon, USA. Close ), but an analysis of Breeding Bird Survey data found that the southern breeding range limit in central and eastern North America did not shift between 1967-1971 and 1998-2002 (Hitch and Leberg 2007).