This hummingbird lives in the highlands of Costa Rica and extends south into Panama. Its throat and breast can flash orange-copper and blue-violet as the viewing angle changes.
Adults are about 11 cm long, with a blue crown, glossy green back, and dark blue tail. The throat glows copper-orange and the center of the breast blue-violet. Juveniles have reddish edges on feathers of the face and nape.
It often feeds in the forest canopy but also descends to shrubs at edges, clearings, and secondary growth. It is solitary and builds a cup nest from tree-fern scales, plant down, and spider webs, decorated with moss and lichen, near the tip of a leaning bamboo or on a root.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.