Canivet's Emerald ranges from southern Mexico through Central America to northwestern Costa Rica. It visits flowers in woodland edges and scrub to feed on nectar.
The adult male has a metallic golden-green head and body, a deeply forked blue-black tail, and a red bill with a dark tip. The female has a duller green back, a white line behind the eye, and pale grey underparts.
Among 141 analyzed records from captures at five sites in Belize and photos from Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, 18 were from before the second major feather change. During the first feather change, all feathers in the row covering the wing surface remained, leaving a visible boundary beside the next row of feathers closer to the body. The young feathers were duller green and less glossy than adult feathers.
In males, the body’s sheen was patchy, and the bill became fully red only after the second major feather change. In records with adult feathers in place, fine ridges on the bill were 0%. The records place the change that completes adult feathers in June–August and the second change in July–December, about seven months after the first young-bird feather change.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.