De Flacourt's "tivouch" led early writers to believe that variants of the bird were found on Madagascar and the Cape of Africa; they were thought to be hoopoes of the genus "Upupa", which received names such as "Upupa capensis" and "Upupa madagascariensis". Some authors also allied the bird with groups such as birds-of-paradise, bee-eaters, cowbirds, Icteridae, and choughs, resulting in its reassignment to other genera with new names, such as "Coracia cristata" and "Pastor upupa". In 1831, French naturalist René-Primevère Lesson placed the bird in its own monotypic genus, "Fregilipus", a composite of "Upupa" and "Fregilus", the latter a defunct genus name of the chough. French naturalist Auguste Vinson established in 1868 that the bird was restricted to the island of Réunion and proposed a new binomial, "Fregilupus borbonicus", referring to the former name of the island.