Adults are colored predominantly green on their upperparts and breast. The undertail coverts are predominantly white. The tail is bronze green and straight. The most prominent feature is the white eyestripe found in both males and females. The bill of the male is straight and very slender. These hummers occur as far south as Cabo San Lucas in the Baja, Their bill is slightly decurved. It is red in coloration, and shows a black tip. His throat is a metallic turquoise green. His crown and face is violet and black. The female is less colorful than the male.

The breeding habitat is in pine oak forests from southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and western Texas through the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental of northern Mexico and the Cordillera Neovolcanica of southern Mexico to southern Nicaragua. It is a common species over much of its range and is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN. It is a rare but regular summer resident in the Madrean sky islands of southeastern Arizona, rarer and less regular in southwestern New Mexico and western Texas in the United States.

These birds feed on nectar from flowers and flowering trees using a long extendable tongue and catch insects and other small invertebrates on the wing or by gleaning from bark, leaves, and other surfaces.