This honeyeater inhabits eucalypt forest and woodland on mainland Australia. It can move locally as its food plants flower.
Adults have a black head and short black bill, a white crescent across the back of the neck, olive or golden-yellow upperparts, pale underparts and a blue patch of bare skin above the eye. Northern birds can have a more golden back; juveniles are duller.
It feeds mainly on nectar and insects, sometimes seeds, and forages in the outer canopy, often in groups of up to twelve. Flowering food plants prompt local movements. Several adults may help feed the young.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.