The species inhabits open eucalypt jungle, woodland, and scrub, generally favouring habitats with significant understory.

Although it is rated as least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species, it has declined in parts of its range.

English ornithologist John Gould described the western yellow robin as Eopsaltria griseogularis in 1838, referring to a specimen collected at the Swan River Colony.

[2] The genus Eopsaltria had been introduced by English naturalist William Swainson six years earlier for what is now the eastern yellow robin (E.

[7] Bird taxonomist Richard Schodde did not feel that this finding warranted the lumping of the two species and concluded in 1999 that they formed a superspecies.

[4] The earliest recorded name is b'am-boore—reported by English naturalist and explorer John Gilbert in 1840, and published in Gould's Birds of Australia—is derived from the Nyungar language.

The orthographic or dialectal variations in the notes of colonial authors have been assessed, and a recommendation for regular spelling as bamborn and guide to pronunciation as bam'bam was proposed by Ian Abbott in 2009.

Intermediate forms between the two subspecies are found over a broad band between Lancelin and Jurien Bay southeast through the inner Wheatbelt to the coast between Denmark and Fitzgerald River National Park.

[20] They molt after a few months into immature plumage, resembling adults but retaining some brownish flight feathers and secondary coverts on their wings and tail.

[21] The western yellow robin produces its song with sequences of extended whistles, begun with two briefly piped notes.

Along the southern coastline, it occurs in a broken distribution to the South Australian border, at Eucla, Hampton Tableland, and the Roe Plains.

[11] Within its range, the western yellow robin is found in eucalypt forest and woodland, and mallee and acacia-shrubland in drier (semi-arid) regions.

The species also avoids parts of the woodland bordering on adjacent farmland, as these areas have a thinner layer of leaf litter.

[28] Fieldwork in the Dryandra Woodland found nests were located in the lower part of the tree canopy, so birds were able to have a clear view of the ground, and be concealed by foliage from aerial predators above.

[28] The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) and the grey shrikethrush (Colluricincla harmonica) have been recorded preying on nestlings.

[28] The species is selected as a host for brood parasites, specifically the pallid cuckoo (Cacomantis pallidus) and the shining bronze-cuckoo (Chrysococcyx lucidus).

[27] One study in Dryandra Woodland found that western yellow robins caught 96% of their prey on the ground,[32] while fieldwork in the same locale showed that they often forage near fallen logs, particularly in the warmer months.

[5][34] The IUCN Red List assessed the western yellow robin in 2016 as a least-concern species, noting a large distribution range and population that, while declining, did not meet their criteria for conservation status of vulnerable to extinction.

Recognized threat factors to the population trajectory of the western yellow robin are global warming, particularly severe weather events, and anthropogenic alterations that degrade or remove its habitat.