BirdLife International describes two separated population areas: coastal Kenya and eastern Tanzania, and another spanning Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, and South Africa.
A field report from Mozambique describes the bird's throat as deep navy blue against a pale yellow background.
It uses lowland forest, thick bush, gallery forest, forest edges, gardens, and mangroves, and is also recorded along inland rivers through savanna. It feeds mainly on invertebrates, including moth larvae, termites, and spiders; nectar is a possible additional food.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.