A small songbird endemic to New Zealand's South and Stewart Islands that now remains mainly in beech forest.
It has a conspicuous yellow head and breast, a brown back, wings, and tail, a white lower belly, and black bill and legs.
Both sexes make rapid chattering calls; males also sing, while females give a distinctive descending buzz.
It searches high foliage for invertebrates, especially caterpillars and spiders, and sometimes takes small fruit. On trunks it may scratch with one leg while the other grips and its tail braces the body.
Mohua breed in spring and summer, mostly as pairs, though some nests have helpers. They build a woven cup of plant fibres in a tree cavity and lay 1–4 eggs. The female incubates for 20–21 days; both sexes feed the young, which fledge after 18–22 days.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.