According to the observations of Mr. Ridgway, this species has quite an extended distribution in the West. He found it in varying abundance from the Sacramento Valley, in California, to the Wahsatch and Uintah Mountains in Utah.
At Sacramento it was more abundant than the C. anna, nesting in the door-yards and in gardens, but particularly in the thick copses of small oaks in the outskirts of the city. In the Great Basin it associated with the Selasphorus rufus in the western portion, and with S. platycercus to the eastward, nesting everywhere, from the lowest valleys to a height of eight or nine thousand feet in the mountains.
Calypte, Gould, Introd. Trochilidæ, 1861, 87. (Type, Ornysmya costæ.)
Calypte costæ.
39399 ♂ 39400 ♀
Calypte costæ.
Gen. Char. Bill longer than the head, straight or slightly curved; tail rather short. Outer primary not attenuated at end. Top of head, as well as throat, with metallic scale-like feathers, a decided and elongated ruff on each side the neck.
The metallic feathers on top of head, the attenuated outer tail-feathers (except in C. helenæ), and the elongated ruff, distinguish the males of this genus very readily from any other in North America.