This small hummingbird occurs in the highlands of northern Peru and southern Ecuador.
The male has yellowish olive-green plumage, coppery ear coverts and lores, and a dark red throat patch; the tail has a blue tinge. The female has a smaller, incomplete scarlet throat patch.
It uses wooded ravines, mossy elfin forest near the tree line, and páramo above it. It feeds on nectar and catches insects in the air; males hold feeding territories.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.