Fruit is an important part of the diet, especially mulberries, as well as insects, but flowers, seeds, spiders and reptiles are taken as well.

Richard Bowdler Sharpe moved it back to the bulbul family in 1882, and placed it in the genus Pycnonotus.

It was moved back to the babblers again by Jean Théodore Delacour in 1946,[6] before Herbert Girton Deignan placed it with the Australasian honeyeaters (family Meliphagidae) in 1958, on the basis of tongue structure, bill shape, nest structure and a number of other morphological features.

[7] The species remained with the honeyeaters for many decades, although some authors questioned the placement, especially as it was the only honeyeater in the North Pacific and there were no members of that family in the Philippines, the island group between that family's natural range and the Bonin Islands.

[6] Hiroyuki Morioka and Takaharu Sakane also attributed the species to the honeyeaters, but cautioned that this was a provisional placement as the structure of the tongue was not very different from that of babblers.

Sibley came to suspect that this meant that the Bonin white-eye had been similarly misassigned to the honeyeaters.

The molecular evidence was supported by behavioural similarities to the white-eyes, such as the highly social allopreening and maintaining close contact when roosting.

The tarsus is long and the toes and claws are strong, especially compared to white-eyes in the genus Zosterops, reflecting its more terrestrial lifestyle.

The species has been introduced to Chichijima from Hahajima, so it was assumed that all records related to that introduction, but its natural presence on the island, and subsequent extinction, was subsequently established from early accounts, and a bird from that island was the type specimen for the species.

[3] The species occupies a wide range of modified habitats during the non-breeding season, but is more localised when breeding, when it is predominantly found in undisturbed native forest with large trees and bamboo, tree ferns and large shrubs.

Local fishermen on Hahajima have reported that the species disperses to the smaller islands of the group during the autumn and winter, but these localised movements have not been confirmed.

[8] Subsequent research found that the species does indeed sing regularly, but does so very early in the morning, just before dawn, and then only rarely during the rest of the day.

[10] The song itself is melodious and has been compared to that of a bunting or a Siberian blue robin, and is a chew-i, chit-chit-pee, chot-chot-pee, ch-ee or tu-ti-ti, ti-titu-tuoo.

[8] The Bonin white-eye has a diet that includes a range of fruit, flowers and insects.

Hiroyuki suggested that its morphology and feeding habits evolved in the lack of competition, as the Bonin Islands are species poor in terms of birds.

Endemic mulberries (Morus boninensis) are a favoured food, but a range of fruits and flowers are fed on, both species native to the island and introduced.

Introduced plants fed on include bananas, papaya, Lantana, Cucurbita moschata (or squash) and Calophyllum inophyllum.

Insects found in the stomachs of Bonin white-eyes include beetles, lacewings, true bugs, and ants.

[3] The nest is mostly made from Pandanus fibres, with vines, grasses, pine needles and rootlets woven in, and the outside is lined with dead leaves.

In a study of native and introduced birds on the islands, it was one of the three most important seed dispersers, along with the brown-eared bulbul and warbling white-eye.

Its current status on Chichijima is uncertain, and it was reintroduced there and may have persisted,[3] although a 2003 study of the species found none there.

More accurate censusing, which took into account both densities of birds and how they varied by habitat, re-estimated the population at over 15,000.

Overall however the species is resilient to some degree to habitat modification, introduced predators and competitors, and its population is thought to be stable.

It remains listed as near threatened, in spite of the stable population, due to a susceptibility to extreme weather events which could decimate the species.