When he first described the species in 1850, Charles Lucien Bonaparte assigned it to the genus Athene. It was later reclassified in the genus Ninox, which contains many other small owls found throughout the Indo-Pacific, but later phylogenetic studies have found it to group within the genus Athene.
When he first described the species in 1850, Charles Lucien Bonaparte assigned it to the genus Athene. It was later reclassified in the genus Ninox, which contains many other small owls found throughout the Indo-Pacific, but later phylogenetic studies have shown it to be grouped within the genus Athene.