Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Gilliard's honeyeater was described by the American ornithologist Thomas Gilliard in 1960 from specimens collected in the Whiteman Mountains on the island of New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago.

The genus name Vosea was chosen to honour the memory of Charles R. Vose (1890–1957), a US businessman, explorer and sponsor.

[5] Formerly classified as a species of least concern by the IUCN,[6] it was suspected to be rarer than generally assumed.

Following the evaluation of its population size, this was found to be correct, and it is consequently uplisted to near threatened status in 2008.