The azure-crested flycatcher was first described in 1875 by ornithologist
Edgar Leopold Layard, Administrator of the Government of the Colony of Fiji at the time. Its specific epithet is derived from the
Latin azureus 'blue', and
capillus 'of the head'. It is also commonly known as the blue-crested broadbill, or as a family Monarchidae in its own right. They are not closely related to their namesakes either, the
Old World flycatchers of the family
Muscicapidae; early molecular research in the late 1980s and early 1990s revealed the monarchs belong to a large group of mainly Australasian birds known as the
Corvida parvorder comprising many tropical and Australian passerines. More recently, the grouping has been refined somewhat as the monarchs have been classified in a 'Core corvine' group with the crows and ravens, shrikes, birds of paradise, fantails, drongos and mudnest builders. In 2016, two former subspecies of the azure-crested flycatcher were reclassified as a separate species, the
chestnut-throated flycatcher. ==Description==