The Blue-winged Mountain-tanager is distributed from northern Venezuela through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to north-west Bolivia. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. Many authorities lump as a sub-species A. s. flavinucha or Bolivian Mountain-tanager within Blue-winged Mountain-tanager but there seems to be some debate about this lump. The Birdlife International map does not recognise this treatment.

It is found in humid forest and secondary growth mainly between 1,200 and 2,500 metres.