It was moved by most taxonomic systems to Chrysuronia based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014.

Their tail is dark metallic green to blue with dusky gray tips on the outer feathers.

Juvenile males have much white below, with a bronze-flecked breast, and their crown and face are dull dark bluish green.

[10] Humboldt's sapphire is found in a narrow Pacific coastal band from extreme southeastern Panama through western Colombia into northwestern Ecuador's Esmeraldas Province.

Xeno-canto and Cornell University's Macaulay Library have only a few recordings of Humboldt's sapphire vocalizations.

It has a fairly large range and an estimated population of between 20,000 and 50,000 mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing.

Its mangrove habitat is slowly being converted to shrimp farming, but because the species also uses secondary forest the population's rate of decline is not high enough for a Near Threatened assessment.