The Great Iora is a small bird with a yellow face and underparts and a black-edged yellow forecrown. It lives in lowland evergreen and semi-deciduous forests.
The adult male has a yellow face and underparts, a yellow forecrown edged in black, dark upperparts, and black wings and tail. The female has olive-green upperparts and a duller head.
It lives in semi-deciduous and evergreen forest, using submontane forest on the Malay Peninsula. It forages in mixed-species insectivore flocks and gives a rapid, high-pitched call.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.