Eastern Whipbird - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Eastern Whipbird was mistakenly described by John Latham as two separate species in 1802 from early colonial illustrations, first as the White-cheeked Crow (Corvus olivaceus), then as the Coachwhip Flycatcher (Muscicapa crepitans). The bird became commonly known as Coachwhip Bird or Stockwhip Bird. John Gould recorded the aboriginal term Djou from the Hunter Region of New South Wales.

Its specific name is derived from its olive colouration, though was soon placed in the new genus Psophodes by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield, derived from the Greek psophōdes/ψοφωδης meaning 'noisy'. The family placement has changed, some now placing it in a large broadly defined inclusive Corvidae, while others split it and several other genera into the Quail-thrush family Cinclosomatidae. Other research proposes that the Quail-thrushes are themselves distinctive, leaving the whipbirds and wedgebills in a family with the proposed name Psophodidae. The name "Eupetidae" had been used for this grouping; however, because of the distant relationship of the Rail-babbler to the other members of this group uncovered in research by Jønsson et al. (2007) that name is more appropriately used for the monotypic family which contains this species.