The Tumbes Tyrant is distributed in the Tumbesian region of north-west Peru. Formerly regarded as a Peruvian endemic it was found by Nick Athanas and others in south-west Ecuador in 2009. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. It is found in dry forest and arid scrub up to 1,000 metres.

Osbert Salvin (1835-1898) was an English naturalist who worked a lot in Central America and is notorious for having introduced quetzal feathers to the European milliners' trade.