The Spotted Barbtail is distributed from Costa Rica through Panama to the mountains of northern Venezuela and the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. There is a distribution map at NatureServe. It is found mainly at between 900 and 2,500 metres in the undergrowth of forest.

Photos 1 and 2, taken at Santa Marta, show the sub-species B. p. coloratus which has a more ochraceous throat than the nominate sub-species shown in photos 3 and 4.