The Empress Brilliant is distributed on the Pacific slope (the Chocó side) of the western cordillera of the Andes in Colombia and northern Ecuador. See the distribution map at xeno-canto. It is found in the cloudforest and very wet foothills of that area between 400 and 2,000 metres.

The male has a frontlet throat and breast glittering green with a pale violet gorget. The female, shown in photos 1 to 3, lacks the frontlet and gorget with the centre of the throat and breast white with specks of green.

Both sexes feed mainly on the canopy and at the edges but usually only the female is seen in the understorey.