The only place where this bird was found was Chichi-jima in the Ogasawara Islands; it might conceivably have inhabited Anijima and Otōtojima, but this has not been borne out by observations or specimens.

The Bonin thrush is not among the birds observed or collected by the Beechey Pacific expedition which called at Chichi-jima in 1827.

It was only found the following year, when Kittlitz took the five specimens; he considered them common enough around the landing site.

Following the suggestion of two shipwrecked sailors (who were picked up by Beechey in 1827) that the island would make a good stopover station for whalers, settlement was begun in 1830.

When Perry's first mission to Japan called at Chichi-jima in 1853, they did not find the bird again, just as naturalist William Stimpson of the Rodgers-Ringgold North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition in the following year.