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Species distribution models (SDMs) that integrate presence‐only and presence–absence data offer a promising avenue to improve information on species' geographic distributions. The use of such ‘integrated SDMs’ on a species range‐wide extent has been constrained by the often limited presence–absence data and by the heterogeneous sampling of the presence‐only data. Here, we evaluate integrated SDMs for studying species ranges with a novel expert range map‐based evaluation. We build new understanding about how integrated SDMs address issues of estimation accuracy and data deficiency and thereby offer advantages over traditional SDMs.

South and Central America.

1979–2017.

Hummingbirds.

We build integrated SDMs by linking two observation models – one for each data type – to the same underlying spatial process. We validate …