[1] The black-headed bulbul was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[3] Gmelin based his account on the "black-headed shrike" that had been described and illustrated in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work A General Synopsis of Birds.

In 2018 it was pointed out that under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature published in 1999 the two names are not homonyms (and if they were Lanius melanocephalos would have priority as it was applied to a species rather than a variety).

[13] Four subspecies are recognized:[13] The black-headed bulbul is 16–18 cm (6.3–7.1 in) in overall length and weighs 20–30 g (0.71–1.06 oz).

[14] It resembles the black-crested bulbul, but has blue eyes (though not reliable in juveniles), a broad yellow tip to the tail, and never shows a crest (however, some subspecies of the black-crested are also essentially crestless, but they have red or yellow throats).