 Finn Salomonsen, writing in 1967, thought that the golden white-eye ("Cleptornis marchei") of the Marianas Islands might be a close relative, and the species was then known as the golden honeyeater.Hiroyuki Morioka and Takaharu Sakane also attributed the species to the honeyeaters, but cautioned that this was a provisional placement as the structure of the tongue was not very different from that of babblers.They also noted that it was very similar in diet and habitat preferences to the warbling white-eye, which had been introduced and was coexisting with the Bonin white-eye.