[2] German naturalist Gustav Fischer described the golden-winged sunbird in 1884, its species name honouring Anton Reichenow.

The golden-winged sunbird also eats insects such as beetles, flies, ants, bees and wasps and various larvae.

[3] Territorial birds, golden-winged sunbirds defend patches of Leonotis nepetifolia flowers outside the breeding season in Kenya.

[6] Field studies in Kenya show that the sunbirds live in the highland areas in a geographical distribution similar to that of Leonotis.

[4] They are active during the daytime and spend their time sitting on perches, fighting for territorial defence, or foraging for nectar.

[7] Field studies show that territorial birds need to spend less time per day foraging to meet their daily energy requirements when the flowers contain more nectar.

Feeding territories may be defended by all age and sex classes of the golden-winged sunbirds, including juveniles.

[8] The golden-winged sunbird has a large range and its total population has not been estimated; however, it is not thought to be endangered and it is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.