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.
The initial classification of the species by Charles Lucien Bonaparte was to the genus Athene. Later taxonomic studies reclassified it into the genus Ninox, which is a group containing other small owls found in the Indo-Pacific region.  However, phylogenetic studies have shown that this particular species belongs within the genus Athene.