Breeding range is patchy, generally due to the patchiness of appropriate habitat in a montane matrix: short willow riparian habitat with little gradient. Breeds from Crowsnest Pass (British Columbia) and Waterton Lakes Park (southwest Alberta) south through the Great Basin mountain ranges. It ranges as far as northern Nevada (Humboldt County, Elko County), Wyoming, Colorado, and just into northern New Mexico. Moves coastwards in winter, occurring mainly in southern California.(Weckstein et al. 2002)