This parrotfinch is a small, mainly green bird with a red head and tail and a stubby dark grey bill.

Breeding birds build a domed grass nest with a side entrance, and lay a clutch normally of four white eggs.

Newly hatched chicks are naked and pink, with blue balls at the upper and lower corners of the gape, and black markings inside the mouth; older fledglings resemble the adults, but lack the red head colouring.

Hartlaub moved the Fiji species to the genus Erythrura, and then had to change the specific name, since another bird, the pin-tailed parrotfinch already had the binomial E. prasina.

The blackish feathering of the chin becomes dark blue on the lower throat and turquoise on the upper breast before fading into the green of the underparts.

Young birds have a dark-tipped yellow bill and sometimes a bluish face which gradually turns red, but the rest of the plumage is like the adult.

[12] Its call is a high, thin seep or peep, similar to those of other parrotfinches such as blue-faced and red-throated,[12] and is often repeated in bursts of varying length.

[14] The song is a long whistled double note similar to, but less urgent, than that of the orange-breasted myzomela,[11] a Fijian endemic honeyeater.

[12] Many parrotfinch species are mainly forest birds, but American ornithologist Jared Diamond has suggested that in the central Pacific, where there are no seed-eating munias occupying the open habitats, species such as Vanuatu's blue-faced parrotfinch and its Fijian relative have expanded into grassy areas of their islands to exploit the supply of seeds.

[11] In some areas, this finch's diet may bring it into conflict with rice growers,[11] but there is no evidence that this protected species is seen as a serious agricultural threat either in Fiji, or in Australia, where it is kept in captivity in small numbers.

[23] Rats and mice use Fiji parrotfinch nests, and may be significant predators of the species,[11] and the small Asian mongoose will prey on birds feeding on the ground.

In the absence of evidence for any decline in numbers, its population is believed to be stable, and it is therefore classed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

[11] Fiji's native birdlife has been badly affected by agriculture, deforestation and introduced pests like rats and mongooses.

Although Important Bird Areas have been established on Taveuni and the forest east of Vanua Levu, conservation problems persist.

The Fiji parrotfinch has adapted well to man-made landscapes;[30] it is neither a ground nor hole nester, so it avoids predation from the mongoose and competition for nest sites with introduced common and jungle mynas.