[2] The Solomons frogmouth is the only known member of the genus Rigidipenna.

However, an expedition by the Florida Museum of Natural History to Santa Isabel Island managed to collect a new specimen in 1998.

Upon examination, the ornithologists Nigel Cleere, Andrew Kratter, together with paleontologist David Steadman, Michael Braun, Christopher Huddleston, evolutionary biologist Christopher Filardi, and ornithologist Guy Dutson realized that it was highly distinct from P. ocellatus.

As a result of this apparent distinction, the Solomons frogmouth was moved to a newly-coined genus, Rigidipenna in 2007.

Storrs Olson, a senior zoologist at the Smithsonian Institution, has stated that the Solomons frogmouth's position as a new species "has profound biogeographical implications and represents a real breakthrough in elucidating the evolutionary history of the family.