[3] Yellow-throated miners are medium-sized, grey passerines with yellow throat markings, legs, and bare patches around the eye.

The common name 'miner' is an alternative spelling of the word myna, mynah or minah, and is shared with other members of the genus Manorina.

Though miners were originally named due to their resemblance to the common myna of South and Southeast Asia that shares similar yellow eye-patch and legs, common mynas are from the starling family and are not closely related to the honeyeater family.

[7] Yellow-throated miners live in groups, are social, noisy, and defend territory or resources from other avian species.

The superfamily also comprises the Australian warblers, scrubwrens, and thornbills (Acanthizidae); bristlebirds (Dasyornithidae); fairy-wrens (Maluridae); and pardalotes (Pardalotidae).

From genetic analysis, the closest relatives to the genus Manorina are the New Guinea and New Britain Melidectes honeyeaters.

[10] M. f. lutea was called the luteous honeyeater, meaning golden or saffron yellow, by Gould, and was recognized as a separate species as recently as 1913.

Yellow-throated miners have a varying amount of yellow highlighting above and below the beak, on the forehead and chin, as well as on the sides of the throat.

[10] The yellow-throated miner has the widest distribution of the Manorina species, and it is found across most of Australia, except east of the Great Dividing Range, on Cape York Peninsula, the very north-eastern Northern Territory, and small patches of the driest parts in Central Australia.

[7] Yellow-throated miners are primarily found in arid and semi-arid regions, but do extend into temperate, subtropical, and tropical areas.

[5] Similar to noisy miners they like edges and so adapt well to disturbed habitat, and can be found in regrowth and along roads or next to cleared lands.

[17] They like some undergrowth and recolonize restored habitat, but are rarely found in dense growth like mature mallee.

Behaviour comparisons are generally with the noisy miner as they seem to be more similar: both prefer more open forests and adapt well to certain types of disturbed habitats.

[10] Yellow-throated miners, like the other Manorina species, have a complex social structure and can live in communal groups of up to 50 birds.

Yellow-throated miners have been observed monopolizing small patches of remnant vegetation along roadsides and dividing paddocks, which cuts off corridors for smaller birds to move through.

[5] Like most honeyeaters, yellow-throated miners have a varied diet, including invertebrates, nectar, and occasionally fruit.

[5] Yellow-throated miners forage in the canopy, probing flowers for nectar and gleaning leaves and bark for spiders and insects.

Yellow-throated miners will catch insects on the wing, using a sally-stall method around 6% of the time, and they use more wing-powered maneuvers than the other Manorina species.

Analysis shows that prior to 1950 the two species had distinct phenotypes, but today there is a continuum due to hybridization.