The Yellow-chinned Spinetail is found in northern Colombia, the eastern half of the Amazon and Orinoco Basins and southwards to northern Argentina. See the distribution map at Birdlife International.

It is fairly common in marshes, mangroves and nearby shrubs where it tends to be quite conspicuous.

It builds a retort-shaped nest in bushes very close to water and is one of the birds used by the brood-parasitic Striped Cuckoo Tapera naevia as a host for its egg.