Occurs nearly throughout South America except in high mountains, barren deserts, subantarctic steppes, and extensive unbroken forest.\u00a0 Also throughout most of the West Indies, but absent from many of the smaller and drier islands.\u00a0 In Central America, it occurs north at least to Nicaragua\u2019s southern border.<\/p>

In North America, resident in southern Florida, sporadic along the Gulf Coast to Louisiana, casual to coastal Texas and North Carolina, and accidental north to Michigan and New Brunswick.<\/p>

Historically limited to South America and Trinidad & Tobago, but its range has gradually expanded north and west across the West Indies and Central America since the 1890s, starting in the Lesser Antilles.\u00a0 It reached Puerto Rico in 1950s, Hispaniola in the 1970s, and Cuba and Florida in the 1980s.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t