Its closest living relative is the New Zealand fernbird or matata (Poodytes punctatus).

Both fernbirds were formerly placed in their own genus Bowdleria; they were later moved to Megalurus and most recently Poodytes.

[2] The first individual known to science was collected in 1868 by New Zealand naturalist Charles Traill on Mangere Island by "knocking it over with a stone".

The reasons for its extinction were apparently brush fires, overgrazing by goats and rabbits and predation by rats and feral cats.

The last specimen was shot for the collection of Lionel Walter Rothschild in 1895 shortly after the introduction of cats to Mangere Island, and it was regarded as extinct by 1900.