The tarsi and feet are grayish with a pink tinge and the soles are flesh-colored. Below is colored cadmium-orange on the chin, throat, and breast. The abdomen is lighter and paler and the flanks are washed with olive. The juveniles can be distinguished by the white super-orbital lines meeting on the forehead in front and drab plummage. Date 14 MAR 96 have more or less ruffous brown above and washed with deep brown on the sides of the body.
Young females are more greenish above and tinged with yellow on the abdomen.
All young have dark brown iris, upper mandible brown with light tip, lower mandible deep salmon colored. The tarsi and feet are gray with flesh colored soles. The taxonomic nomenclature was revised several times for the group of Hawaiian creepers. This species has a varied classification history. The species has this status wherever found including the State of Hawaii.