It was endemic to Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, part of New South Wales, Australia.

The birds were very tame, commonly seen around buildings which they often entered in search of insects.

[1] The fantail built a cup-shaped nest, with a rudimentary tail, of decayed wood fibre and grass, bound with cobwebs and lined with fine grass, situated on a horizontal branch.

[3] The Lord Howe fantail was reported as common in 1909 but disappeared not long after black rats were accidentally introduced to the island with the grounding of the ship SS Makambo there in June 1918.

[4] The fantail was only one of a suite of Lord Howe's endemic birds and other fauna exterminated by rat predation.