The honeycreeper lived throughout, but was most abundant in the interior among tall grass and low bushes near the open plain that bordered the island's lagoon.

[2][3][4][5] In 1892, the British zoologist and banker Walter Rothschild described and named seven new bird species from Hawaii, obtained by the New Zealand collectors Henry C. Palmer and George C. Munro in 1891, including a series of ten honeycreeper specimens from Laysan.

[2][7][8][9] The generic name is derived from the Greek word himation, a crimson cape worn by the Spartans to war, in reference to the color of the ʻapapane.

[10] The specific name refers to George D. Freeth, the self-appointed US governor of Laysan, manager of the guano-mining operations there, and amateur naturalist, who had assisted Palmer and Munro.

[2][11][14] In 1950, the American ornithologist Dean Amadon considered the spelling fraithii to be a lapsus calami ('slip of the pen', or misspelling), and justified using freethii instead, since Rothschild later corrected the name to that.

These authors stated that they supported the use of Hawaiian neologisms for local use, but thought the AOU should continue designating English names using loan words where appropriate, but not create new ones in other languages.

[15] In 1976, the American geologist Seymour O. Schlanger and botanist George W. Gillett proposed that because Laysan had been a raised coral island until 18,000 years ago whereafter erosion and tectonic subsidence reduced its height, it could have been a refugium for upland and montane species that had adapted to the drastic changes in habitat.

[23] The American ornithologists Storrs L. Olson and Helen F. James considered the Laysan honeycreeper a distinct species from the ʻapapane in 1982, but without elaboration.

[25] A 2004 phylogenetic analysis by James based on osteological features found Himatione to group in a clade similar to what Perkins suggested in 1903.

Her "clade 11" is depicted in the cladogram below († denotes recent extinctions, ‡ denotes prehistoric):[27] Vestiaria coccinea (ʻiʻiwi) †Drepanis funerea (black mamo) †Drepanis pacifica (Hawaii mamo) Himatione sanguinea (ʻapapane) †Himatione freethii (Laysan honeycreeper, now fraithii) Palmeria dolei (ʻākohekohe) ‡Ciridops tenax (stout-legged finch) ‡Ciridops sp.

(from Oahu) †Ciridops anna (ʻula-ʻai-hāwane) The Hawaiian honeycreepers, variously considered to constitute the family Drepanididae (formerly spelled "Drepanidae" or "Drepaniidae", a name that turned out to be nomenclaturally unavailable, because it was preoccupied by a family of moths[15]), subfamily Drepanidinae, or tribe Drepaninini, were long recognized as constituting a natural group of finches with varying bill-shapes and plumage patterns as a result of adapting to island environments.

Although Rothschild stated in his 1892 description that the female was paler than the male, the American zoologist Walter K. Fisher indicated in 1903 that such differences may have been age-related instead.

Fisher also noted that the illustration of the Laysan honeycreeper published by Rothschild showed the bird as far too pale, giving an inaccurate idea of its color.

[12] The ʻapapane differs from the Laysan honeycreeper in being blood-red overall, with black wings and tail, whiter undertail covert feathers, and a longer bill.

[15] Olson and Ziegler also suggested in 1995 that the intense sunlight of Lysan had caused the honeycreeper's plumage to fade, accounting for the difference from the ʻapapane, but noted it had been found to be distinct in osteological features.

While catching and skinning birds in 1891, Palmer caught a Laysan honeycreeper in his net, which proceeded to sing in his hand; he answered it with a whistle, which it returned, continuing for some minutes without seeming frightened.

Laysan is the eroded remnant of a once high island, built up by volcanic activity, perhaps the flattened top of a volcano that formed in the Miocene.

Its subsurface substratum is coralline rock, and its topography suggests it was once part of an atoll with a lagoon that occupies about one-fifth of the island's center, and is now almost filled with sand and coral fragments.

The bird originally fed on nectar from the native flower maiapilo (Capparis sandwichiana), but when that species disappeared, it switched to ʻākulikuli (Sesuvium portulacastrum) and ʻihi (Portulaca lutea).

[21][35] The Laysan honeycreeper spent the day foraging while walking like pipits after small insects or drinking from flowers with its brush-like tongue.

[34][37][13][19] The Laysan honeycreeper gathered insects from flowers, such as small, green caterpillars, and were fond of the large, brownish moths called millers (including species of Agrotis and others that have since disappeared[39]), which were abundant on the island, and were also fed on by other insect-eating birds.

[19] The American zoologist Charles C. Nutting stated in 1903 that the species of Laysan were abundant and that there were excellent conditions for collecting and studying birds.

During a 1911 expedition to assess the condition of bird life on Laysan, the American ornithologist Homer R. Dill and Bryan found rabbits everywhere, and foresaw that there would be no vegetation left if drastic measures were not taken.

[38] Bailey recalled in 1956 that a singing honeycreeper perched on a dead hau (Hibiscus tiliaceus) tree was the first bird to greet him and the Canadian ornithologist George Willett when they visited Laysan in 1912.

Because of the rapidly disappearing vegetation, the birds were confined to patches of wild tobacco, the few remaining Scaevola plants, and grass tufts.

[42] The American ornithologists Charles A. Ely and Roger B. Clapp pointed out in 1973 that Munter's estimates were perhaps too generous, as he did not consider them numerous the following year.

By this time, the American ornithologist Alexander Wetmore described the island as a "barren wasteland of sand" that from its appearance might as well be a desert, whereas 20 years earlier it had been a pleasant spot covered in green vegetation.

Three Laysan honeycreepers were found to be alive by the expedition members; the birds were scrambling around rocks and guano to pick up small flies.

[21] Some of Dickey's last field notes on the Laysan honeycreeper from April 11, 1923, read as follows: Reno's report of finding 3 specimens of Himatione alive and thriving today in the tobacco patch SW of the lagoon makes me all the more certain that the species could all have adapted themselves to the changed conditions and gained a livelihood had they only been granted nesting cover to guarantee new recruits to take the place of the older birds as they died off.

God knows when the last flower bloomed on this barren waste, yet here are at least three individuals of this specialized form persisting as a sort of heritage from the last nest of the species that was built in sufficient cover to survive.