It is found in Aruba, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, Colombia, Curaçao, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.

[3][4][5] The ruby-topaz hummingbird was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Trochilus mosquitus.

[7] The ruby-topaz hummingbird is now the only species placed in the genus Chrysolampis, which was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1831.

Its crown and nape are glossy ruby red, and the throat and breast are usually iridescent golden though sometimes emerald green.

[11] The ruby-topaz hummingbird is found from eastern Panama east through northern Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas into northeastern Brazil.

[4] The ruby-topaz hummingbird inhabits the interior and edges of open savanna-like landscapes and shrubby arid hillsides; it is found in gardens and cultivated areas as well.

[11] The ruby-topaz hummingbird feeds on nectar from a wide variety of flowering shrubs, trees, epiphytes, cacti,[12] and crops.

The female makes a tiny cup nest of fine plant fibers and spider silk decorated on the outside with lichens.