 Richard Bowdler Sharpe moved it back to the bulbul family in 1882, and placed it in the genus "Pycnonotus".It was moved back to the babblers again by Jean Théodore Delacour in 1946, before Herbert Girton Deignan placed it with the Australasian honeyeaters (family Meliphagidae) in 1958, on the basis of tongue structure, bill shape, nest structure and a number of other morphological features.The species remained with the honeyeaters for many decades, although some authors questioned the placement, especially as it was the only honeyeater in the North Pacific and there were no members of that family in the Philippines, the island group between that family's natural range and the Bonin Islands.