This flowerpiercer occurs in Bolivia. Its slender bill ends in a prominent hook used to pierce flowers for nectar. A 2021 field study recorded new observation sites in Potosí Department.
The bill is slender, rises slightly toward its tip, and ends in a prominent hook. The head, back, and tail are black; the chest is gray and the lower belly reddish.
It pierces flowers with the hooked bill to obtain nectar. In Potosí, one bird perched in a Polylepis by a stream and another entered a Chuquiraga shrub beside a ravine to forage.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.