This hummingbird occurs in the high mountains of Costa Rica. It uses open páramo and scrub, and male throat colors differ among mountain populations.
The male’s gorget differs by subspecies: mauve-purple in flammula, steel-purple to green-purple in torridus, and rosy in simoni.
It occurs in open high-elevation páramo with scrub and short trees, and visits small flowers.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.