The White-lined Tanager is distributed in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, northern Venezuela, the Guianas, much of Brazil and into Paraguay and northern Argentina. However, it is absent from eastern and south-eastern Brazil and much of western Amazonia. See the distribution map at Birdlife International.

The male looks all black as in photo 4 but it can show its white wing-coverts as in photos 1 and 3. The lower mandible has a steel-blue base.