The maroon shining parrot was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[2] Gmelin based his description of the Tabuan parrot that the English ornithologist John Latham had described and illustrated in 1781 in his A General Synopsis of Birds.

[3] The maroon shining parrot is now placed with two other species in the genus Prosopeia that was introduced in 1854 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.

[6] Two subspecies are recognised:[5] Adults have variable plumage; red/black face; rest of head brown/red, darker on hindcheeks; underparts dark maroon; dark blue collar across upper mantle, obvious in some birds but in others narrow and nearly absent; upperparts and tail green, feathers on rump in some individuals edged with maroon.

[7] The call of the maroon shining parrot is a mix of high-pitched nea-nea and arr sounds that are repeated in bursts, in addition to a variety of other squawks and hoots.

[9]: 4 The maroon shining parrot is native to Fiji and Tonga, near the forests or on the islands of Kadavu and Ono.

[7] The maroon shining parrot primarily feeds on seeds and fruits of various forest trees.

[11] The strong bill of the maroon shining parrot allows it to grab onto branches and move in order to locate and attain food.

[11] The average clutch size of the maroon shining parrot is two or three eggs which are laid in tree cavities.