It is a fast flying lorikeet with vibrant plumage; a green back, wings and crown, a blue nape and legs and bright red undersides and cheeks.

The Kuhl's lorikeet's habitat is natural tropical moist lowland forests and plantations.

In islands denuded of native forests and covered with extensive coconut plantations it is found exclusively in those areas.

[2] Studies of fossils have shown that it once had a widespread distribution from the Cook Islands to French Polynesia.

Its range contracted greatly after the arrival of humans, until the only surviving natural population was on Rimatara in the Austral Islands of Southern French Polynesia.