This honeyeater occurs on islands around Indonesia's Banda Sea. Survey records include villages, gardens, savanna woodland, eucalyptus woodland, and primary and secondary forest; on some islands it is concentrated in coastal lowlands.
A fledgling photographed on Romang had yellow gape patches and plain olive-grey underparts. Unlike heavily scaled adults, its chest and belly showed little scaling.
On Babar and Romang it was recorded in villages, gardens, eucalyptus woodland, and primary and secondary forest. On Babar records ranged from sea level to at least 650 m; a range of calls was heard through much of the day.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.