Call is a sharp upslurred “tsweep!”" In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the purple-throated sunbird in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in the Philippines.

He used the French name Le grimpereau pourpré des Philippines and the Latin Certhia Philippensis Purpurea.

[2] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

[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.

This nest was attached to the tip of a fern and tear-drop shaped It was made of a tangle of dried leaves and stems and had a side entrance and contained 2 eggs.