The male's dark crest plumes and golden-green throat stand out on this small hummingbird. It visits flowers and gleans tiny arthropods along humid forest edges and coffee farms.
The male has a dark metallic green head with long black crest plumes and a bright golden-green throat. The female has bronze-green upperparts and a white throat, with rufous in the tail.
Among 150 analyzed records from captures at five sites in Belize and photos extending south to Costa Rica, 15 were from before the second major feather change. During the first feather change in young birds, 0–2 inner feathers in the row covering the wing surface were replaced (mean 0.17). The young feathers that remained were duller green and less glossy than adult feathers.
In males, feather color and bill color developed later; the upper bill became mostly red during or after the second major feather change. In records showing adult feathers in place, fine ridges on the bill appeared in 0% of samples. The records show that the second change and the change when adult feathers were in place occurred in similar seasons, though the second change peaked later.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.