Its stronghold appears to be Mindanao as it has not been seen on Cebu since the 1920s, Samar in the 1964 (but has multiple unverified records on eBird in 2023 and 2024) and Leyte in 1973.

These birds are differentiated by the Philippine leafbird being more plain green and larger at around 18-19 cm in length vs the former's 16-18cm.

Molecular studies have also shown that after the Yellow-throated leafbird it's also closely related to the Lesser green leafbird This species is now monotypic but birds from Northeast Mindano were once assigned as the subspecies mindanensis but birds from these areas are inseperable in appearance.

Its breeding habits are essentially unknown aside from a nest seen on Leyte in August and elarged gonads reported in specimens collected in April and May.

Most remaining lowland forest that is not afforded protection leaving it vulnerable to both legal and Illegal logging, conversion into farmlands through Slash-and-burn and mining.

Most Ebird and sight observations are in the PICOP Logging Concession in Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur, since the closure of PICOP, illegal settlers have massively deforested the area for illegal hardwoods and have been replanting cleared areas with paper pulp trees which do cannot support these birds.

Conservation actions proposed are to survey remaining lowland forest tracts on Samar, Leyte and in poorly known areas of Mindanao, to establish its current distribution and population status.