Small, dark flowerpiercer with typical upturned, hooked bill. Slaty-blackish body with grayish spotted or scaled underparts and mostly black wings. Sexes similar. Common, usually alone or in pairs, piercing flowers in shrubby areas and forest edges. Call a high-pitched note typical of flowerpiercers; song a four-note “chip ZEET ZEET zeet.” No overlap with other flowerpiercers in its limited range in the Pantepui region of southern Venezuela and adjacent Brazil.