This species is found in open, lightly wooded habitats, such as hillsides with trees or scrub and forest edges.

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the brimstone canary in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected at the Cape of Good Hope.

He used the French name Le gros-bec du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Coccothraustes Capitis Bonae Spei.

[2] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

[3] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.

[7][8] Three subspecies are recognised:[7] The brimstone canary is 15–16 cm in length with a heavy bill, which is short, conical and very stout at the base.

The call notes of the brimstone canary in the south of its range are a trilled, deeply pitched swirriwirrit or chirrup.