Males have black underparts and a glossy green throat. Females have grayish underparts. Peruvian highland records describe birds catching insects at streams.
The male is green above and black below, with a broad iridescent green throat. The female is green above and gray below, with dark throat specks and broad white tips on the tail feathers.
Peruvian field notes include an individual catching insects above a mountain stream and a nest in a rock niche at about 4,500 m, made mainly of moss draped with lichen. The notes identify the stream-foraging bird as female based on geography rather than physical traits.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.