In 1943, American ornithologist Dean Amadon suggested that "Sturnus"-like species could have arrived in Africa and given rise to the wattled starling ("Creatophora cinerea") and the Mascarene starlings. According to Amadon, the Rodrigues and hoopoe starlings were related to Asiatic starlings—such as some "Sturnus" species—rather than to the glossy starlings ("Lamprotornis") of Africa and the Madagascan starling ("Saroglossa aurata"), based on their colouration. A 2008 study by Italian zoologist Dario Zuccon and colleagues analysing the DNA of a variety of starlings confirmed that the hoopoe starling belonged in a clade of Southeast Asian starlings as an isolated lineage, with no close relatives. The following cladogram shows its position: