Distribution

Brown Trembler is restricted to the Lesser Antilles. This trembler is well documented from the islands of Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, and St. Vincent (Ridgway 1907, Storer 1989). Raffaele et al. (1998) regard it as only a vagrant to St. Eustatius, and mention other vagrant records from St. Thomas (Virgin Islands) and Antigua. (Note that there are subfossil remains of a trembler from Antigua; see Fossil history.) Brown Trembler also is described as "rare" on Grenada (Raffaele et al. 1998, 2003).

An interesting feature of the distribution of Brown Trembler is that it appears to be interrupted by the presence of a different species, Gray Trembler (Cinclocerthia gutturalis), on the islands of Martinique and St. Lucia. There is considerable confusion in the literature over the presence and status of Brown Trembler on Martinique and St. Lucia. There seems to be no specimen documentation of the presence of Brown Trembler on either island. Raffaele et al. (1998, 2003) list Brown Trembler from Martinique but describe it as "rare" on that island. Raffaele et al. (1998, 2003) also list Brown Trembler from St. Lucia, with the comment (in Raffaele et al. 1998) that it is restricted there to dry forests or scrub; but Toussaint et al. (2009) report it as only a vagrant to St. Lucia. It remains to be explained how, if Brown Trembler indeed is resident on Martinique and/or St. Lucia, it has not been documented (specimen, incontrovertible photograph, etc.) from either island.

The species is found only in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean.

Brown Trembler primarily inhabits humid evergreen forest, from the lowlands up to ca 900 m, and also occurs in secondary forests and plantations (Zusi 1969, Parker et al. 1996).

A trembler, presumably Brown Trembler, formerly occurred on Antigua, where it is known only from late Holocene remains (see Fossil history). The apparent extinction of Brown Trembler on Antigua presumably is related to changes on that island associated with human colonization (Steadman et al. 1984).

Remains of a trembler were recovered from fossiliferous deposits, dated from between 2500-4300 years before present, from Antigua (Steadman et al. 1984); almost surely these would refer to Brown Trembler, which currently occurs on adjacent islands, and not to Gray Trember (Cinclocerthia gutturalis).