The Scissor-tailed Hummingbird is restricted to the Paria Peninsula in northeastern Venezuela. The male has a glittering blue crown, a green throat, and a long, deeply forked tail.
The male has a glittering blue crown and a green throat and breast. Its tail is deeply forked; the female's tail is shorter.
In cloud forest it feeds mainly at bromeliad flowers and takes insects from them. In secondary forest it has been recorded feeding at Heliconia and Costus flowers.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.