In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the garden sunbird in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in the Philippines.

[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.

Based on the difference in the male plumage and a genetic study comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences of some of the subspecies, the olive-backed sunbird was split into eight species.

The areas around its eyes (lores), neck, chin, throat, and breast are dark and iridescent, accompanied by yellow pectoral tufts.

Non-breeding males often have the glossy black coloration limited to the central throat stripe, which may represent juvenile birds transitioning to their adult plumage.

[10] The female garden sunbird builds the nest using grass, cotton, moss, lichens, leaf fragments, vegetable fibers, and spider webs, lined with bark or feathers.