It was described in 2013 from fossil material (a left tarsometatarsus and a cranial part left coracoid) found in the Saint Bathans Fauna of the Bannockburn Formation, at Home Hills Station in the Manuherikia River valley of Otago, South Island.

It was a contemporary of the much larger Saint Bathans heron, remains of which have been found in the same sediments.

The genus name Pikaihao comes from the Māori pi (a prefix for small birds or chicks) and kaihao (“fisherman”).

The specific epithet honours Sandy Bartle, Curator of Birds at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa from 1976 to 2009.

You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.This prehistoric bird article is a stub.