Following a 2015 publication, the Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the then American Ornithologists' Union recognized the Inagua woodstar as a separate species and the major worldwide taxonomic systems followed suit.

Following that study and a 2017 publication, taxonomists moved the Inagua and Bahama woodstars into the resurrected genus Nesophlox.

Both sexes have a short, slightly decurved, black bill and a small white spot behind the eye.

Their tail is rounded; the central feathers are green and the rest cinnamon with a wide black band near the end.

However, there are a few records of vagrant Bahama woodstars in Florida and Cuba from before the split that were not identified at the subspecies level, so it is possible that some were of this species.

[11] As of July 2022, neither the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library nor xeno-canto have recordings of the Inagua woodstar's vocalizations.

No specific threats have been identified, but because the islands are so low-lying, the potential is there for major habitat destruction and direct mortality by a hurricane.