It is found in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

In the revised classification to create monophyletic genera, the azure-crowned hummingbird was moved by most taxonomic systems to the resurrected genus Saucerottia.

[5] The nominate subspecies of azure-crowned hummingbird is found from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas south through Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador into north central Nicaragua.

Subspecies S. c. chlorostephana's range is disjunct, on the Mosquito Coast of eastern Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua.

[5] The azure-crowned hummingbird forages for nectar from the understory to the forest canopy, but details of its diet are lacking.

In the pine savanna it has been noted hovering at clusters of needles and bark crevices, but it is not known if it was hunting arthropods or visiting the flowers of epiphytes.

[5] The azure-crowned hummingbird's breeding season varies geographically but overall appears to span at least from February to July.

It also makes a "fairly mellow, strong chipping [that] at times run into a trill or rattle."