They breed from the U.S. states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana south through Central America to Panama.

Their diet mostly consists of seeds and insects, along with snails during breeding season for a calcium source.

[2] There are three subspecies:[3] The bronze-brown cowbird, which is restricted to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, was formerly considered to be an isolated population of this species.

[3] The male bronzed cowbird is 20 cm (7.9 in) long and weighs 68 g (2.4 oz), with green-bronze, gloss-black plumage.

Young birds have coloring similar to the females, with the exception of grey feather fringes.