This hummingbird was studied in the south-central Ecuadorian Andes. Males and females differ in throat and belly color, and the birds take arthropods as well as flower nectar.
Males have dark olive upperparts, a violet throat and a blue tail with a yellow-green underside. Females have whitish-grey underparts, an incomplete throat patch and dense green spotting.
In south-central Ecuador, the species was recorded in shrubby páramo, Polylepis forest and the upper edge of montane forest. It took flower nectar and captured arthropods from vegetation, ground moss and the air.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.