It was formerly considered conspecific with the Sumatran Ground Cuckoo.

Sumatran Ground Cuckoo (Carpococcyx viridis)

An Indonesian endemic, the Sumatran Ground Cuckoo is distributed to rainforests of southern Sumatra.

Due to ongoing habitat loss and small population size, the Sumatran Ground Cuckoo is evaluated as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

In 2006, a camera-trap surveying for tigers close to Kerinci Seblat National Park took an image of the Sumatran Ground Cuckoo, only the second time it had been recorded in the last ninety years.