This hummingbird occurs in the mountains of Colombia and Venezuela. A 2000 study documents geographic variation in Andean tail color and discusses separating the related S. cupreicauda.
In Weller's account of the southern Andean population, males have violet-blue tail feathers with purplish margins. Females may show brownish to bronze coloration along the sides or tips of the tail feathers.
It uses humid forest, forest edges, secondary growth, woodland, and scrub, and feeds mainly on nectar. Oiseaux.net lists it as sedentary and records it from 400 to 1,700 m.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.