 The Hispaniolan oriole was once identified as a distinct species.However, in 1936 American ornithologist James Bond grouped this species, the Cuban oriole ("Icterus melanopsis"), Bahama oriole ("Icterus northropi"), and Puerto Rican oriole ("Icterus portoricensis") into a single species according to the biological species concept in his book “Birds of the West Indies.”  These orioles used to be considered the Greater Antillean/ Black-Cowled oriole group, but in 2010, the American Ornithologist' Union declared the four subspecies as full species.In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Hispaniolan oriole in his "Ornithologie" based on a specimen collected on the French colony of Saint-Domingue on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.