Festive Coquette

The festive coquette is 7.5 to 9.1 cm (3.0 to 3.6 in) long; adults weigh about 3 g (0.11 oz). Both sexes have a short, straight, black bill. Their upperparts are bronzy green with a pale band across the rump, their lower rump and undertail coverts are purplish bronze, and their tail is purplish copper with pale tips on the outer feathers. Adult males have an iridescent green forehead with a band of stiff black feathers around it. They have green cheek tufts tipped with white and a ruff around the bill and chin that is glittering green with white tips. Their breast is whitish streaked with black and the belly grayish brown with a blackish stripe down the middle. The adult female has blackish cheeks without the male's tufts but with a white "moustache". Its chin is pale buff with a dark spot in the center and the rest of the underparts are brownish with whitish scaling. Juveniles are similar to the adult female.

The festive coquette is found in southeastern Brazil from Espírito Santo south into Santa Catarina. Several records in northeastern Argentina have not been confirmed so the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC) lists it as hypothetical in that country. It inhabits humid primary and secondary forests and also cerrado. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

The festive coquette's diet is nectar and small insects. It feeds by hovering to withdraw nectar from a wide variety of flowers but also might pierce the base of flowers to "rob" nectar. It has been observed trap-lining in limited areas. It does not defend feeding territories but will aggressively compete with other festive coquettes at a flowering plant. It might glean insects from foliage in addition to capturing them in flight.