It was first discovered in August 2002 by Mario Cohn-Haft but stayed unrecognised for two and a half years until the holotype was collected in January 2005.

The species' epithet commemorates Dr. Jürgen Haffer, an ornithologist from Germany, best known for his Pleistocene refugia hypothesis developed in 1969.

The common name campina refers to its specific habitat, a cerrado-like open savanna in the Amazon River basin in Brazil.

The HBW and Birdlife checklist recognizes campina jay as a separate species.

[2] The Campina jay is endemic to the Brazilian Amazon where it is known almost entirely from within the Madeira-Purus interfluve in the state of Amazonas.