 This species was collected by Reverend Jean Pierre Barbe and described by Edward Blyth in 1846.Some workers have considered the species to be subspecies of the dusky megapode ("Megapodius freycinet").The exact island from which the original type specimen came was not known and a later specimen from Trinkat Island, described as "Megapodius trinkutensis" is now considered to be indistinguishable from the nominate subspecies.