The scarlet myzomela is found along most of the eastern coastline, from Cape York in the far north to Gippsland in Victoria.

The female lays two or rarely three flecked white eggs in a 5 cm (2 in) diameter cup-shaped nest high in a tree.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as being of least concern on account of its large range and apparently stable population.

The scarlet myzomela was depicted in three paintings in a set of early illustrations known as the Watling drawings, done in the first years of European settlement of Sydney between 1788 and 1794.

He based the description of Certhia sanguinolenta on an immature male moulting into adult plumage with incomplete red colouration,[2][3] calling it the sanguineous creeper.

[4] English naturalist James Francis Stephens called it Meliphaga sanguinea in 1826 as a replacement name for Latham's Certhia sanguinolenta.

[3] In 1990, Ian McAllan proposed that the first drawing did not confirm the species identity and proposed the name Myzomela dibapha to hence be the oldest validly published name;[9] however, Richard Schodde countered in 1992 that the drawing of an immature male could not be of any other species, meaning that M. sanguinolenta should stand.

[15] Molecular analysis has shown honeyeaters to be related to the Pardalotidae (pardalotes), Acanthizidae (Australian warblers, scrubwrens, thornbills, etc.

[16] The smallest honeyeater native to Australia,[17] the scarlet myzomela is a distinctive bird with a compact body, short tail and relatively long down-curved black bill and dark brown iris.

[18] The female has a brown head and neck, darker on top and lighter and greyer on the sides, with a pale grey-brown throat and chin.

[20] Young birds have juvenile plumage when they leave the nest;[19] they are similar to females though with more reddish-brown upperparts, light brown rumps and uppertail coverts.

[21] Males could be mistaken for the similar looking red-headed myzomela in eastern Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland where their ranges overlap, though the latter's red colouration is restricted to the head and is sharply demarcated.

[23] The scarlet myzomela is found from Cooktown in Far North Queensland down the east coast to Mitchell River National Park in Gippsland, Victoria.

Its range extends inland to Charters Towers, Carnarvon Gorge and Inglewood in Queensland, and the Warrumbungles in New South Wales.

Population numbers have been reported as fluctuating in some areas, with local movements possibly related to the flowering of preferred food plants.

[27] The maximum age recorded from banding has been just over 10 years, in a bird caught south of Mount Cotton in Queensland.

Scarlet myzomelas are encountered alone, in pairs, or in small troops, sometimes with other honeyeaters in the canopy of trees in flower.

Nest failures may lead to a third brood, with females able to lay eggs around three weeks after the previous young have fledged.

[19] The nest consists of a tiny cup of shredded bark with spider web as binding, high up in the tree canopy, or even in mistletoe.

[30] The scarlet myzomela is listed as being a species of least concern by the IUCN, on account of its large range (1,960,000 square km) and stable population, with no evidence of any significant decline.

Applicants for the New South Wales B2 licence must have at least two years' experience keeping birds, and be able to demonstrate that they can provide the appropriate care and housing for the species they wish to obtain.