This tiny parrot feeds upside down on lichens and fungi on tree trunks. Plumage and colour patterns vary among subspecies and between sexes.
In adult M. f. finschii from the southern Solomon Islands, males are green, with blue at the base of the lower bill and orange-red at the centre of the abdomen. Females have a pink base to the lower bill and lack the orange-red abdominal patch.
It feeds upside down on tree trunks, eating lichens, fungi and scale insects. It braces itself with its tail and uses arboreal termite mounds for nesting and roosting.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.