This small hummingbird lives in the highlands from southern Mexico to northern Central America. Males have a gleaming wine-red throat, and the birds use mountain forest edges and scrub where they feed on nectar.
The male has a gleaming wine-red throat and a pale line above the eye. Its back is green; the rufous tail has a dark band and white tips. The female lacks the red throat patch and instead has dark spots on the throat and pale underparts.
It occurs in pine-oak forest, along montane evergreen-forest edges, and in scrubby second growth beside forest. It also uses open highland edges and scrub.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.