It is endemic to the Sangihe Islands which lie northeast of Sulawesi in Indonesia.

Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

The Sangihe golden bulbul was formally described in 1888 by the German ornithologist Wilhelm Blasius from a specimen collected by Margarete and Carl Platen on Sangir Island, north of Sulawesi in Indonesia.

[5] By publishing scientific names in a daily newspaper, the Braunschweigische Anzeiger, Blasius was able to get his new names in print before his main rival Richard Bowdler Sharpe.

This bulbul is now placed in the genus Hypsipetes that was introduced in 1831 by Nicholas Vigors.