This endemic Hawaiian honeycreeper lives in montane forest on Hawaiʻi Island. It uses a long curved upper bill and a short lower bill to search branches for insects and larvae.
The long upper bill curves downward, while the short lower bill is used like a woodpecker's to tap and open branches. Adult males have bright yellow heads and underparts; females are olive above with greyish-yellow underparts.
It feeds mainly on insects and probes branches of koa and ʻōhiʻa trees. After locating a larva, it chisels the branch with the lower bill and fishes the prey out with the long upper bill.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.