This small bird lives in sub-Saharan African savanna and open woodland. It has a grey-tinged olive back and a belly whose yellow varies in intensity, and it moves actively among foliage.
The upperparts are grey to olive, the breast is pale grey, and the belly is yellow, with the amount of yellow varying. The eye is described as dark brown.
It forages actively in savannas and open woodland, from drier to moister settings, and may join mixed-species flocks.
Hall’s specimen notes link the green-backed form from Vila Flor, Nova Lisboa, and Vila Luso with bushes at woodland edges. Hall described the habitat as broadly similar to that of E. i. polioxantha, but possibly more open. The account gives no diet or nest details.
Hall’s (1960) Angola specimen account treats E. salvadorii as the green-backed form and records one bird collected about five miles north of Vila Flor on 26 August. This is a specimen record from that locality.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.