This is among the commonest of Africa's fluftails, its distribution spreading westwards in finger-like projections from a predominantly easterly distribution in sub-Saharan Africa, south to Cape Town. It just touches the north-east of Namibia, where it is almost certainly under-recorded because it is heard more often than seen in wetlands comprising grasses and reeds. Its area of occupancy is therefore probably greater than the 1,600 km2 recorded from the Okavango River and Linyanti Swamps. Birds were also recorded in the Bwabwata National Park from the Okavango and Kwando river floodplains, from the Zambezi eastern floodplain, the Nkasa-Lupala Island complex nearby, from north of Kamanjab and near Windhoek.