Using environmental cues, the timing of nesting is determined by the painted honeyeaters so that they are not arriving at sites as food resources are declining rather than beginning to increase. Coinciding breeding with fruit ripening may also correlate with the preference of many individuals to nest near or amongst mistletoe. It constructs a shallow, flimsy-looking, cup-shaped nest of fine grass and rootlets, bound with spider webs, hanging by the rim from twigs in the outer foliage of a shrub or tree, 3–20 m above the ground.