It is found in the Chinese province of Yunnan, northern Laos, eastern Myanmar and adjacent areas of Vietnam, Thailand and Northeast India.

The black-headed greenfinch is a medium-sized finch with a length of 12.4–14 cm (4.9–5.5 in).

It has a dark blackish-olive head, a pale pinkish-brown conical bill and a yellow patch on the wings.

[2] The black-headed greenfinch was described by the French zoologist Émile Oustalet in 1896 and given the binomial name Chysomitris ambigua.

[5][6] The genus had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800.