Buller was born at Newark, the Wesleyan mission at Pakanae in the Hokianga, the son of Rev.

James Buller, a Cornish missionary who had helped convert the people of Tonga to Methodism.

In 1905, he published a two-volume Supplement to the History of the Birds of New Zealand, which brought the work up to date.

[3] Buller helped establish the scientific display in the New Zealand Court at the World's Fair in Paris and was decorated with the Officer of the Legion of Honour by the President of France in November 1889.

He contested the general elections of 1876 (Manawatu; beaten by the incumbent Walter Johnston)[6][7] and 1881 (Foxton, where he came fourth of six candidates),[1][8] and the 1891 by-election in the Te Aroha electorate (where he was beaten by William Fraser, the official Liberal Party candidate).