The Seram boobook is part of a species complex that comprises four species. All four species used to be considered as part of a single species, the Moluccan boobook, which was classified under the scientific name Ninox squamipila used in a broader sense.[1][4]
The four species of Moluccan boobook currently recognised are:
Ninox squamipila (Bonaparte, 1850) - Seram boobook -
Seram Island in the southern Maluku Islands
^Gwee, Chyi Yin; Christidis, Leslie; Eaton, James A.; Norman, Janette A.; Trainor, Colin R.; Verbelen, Phillippe; Rheindt, Frank E. (2017). "Bioacoustic and multi-locus DNA data of Ninox owls support high incidence of extinction and recolonisation on small, low-lying islands across Wallacea". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 109: 246–58.
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10.1016/j.ympev.2016.12.024.
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Norman, J.A., L. Christidis, M. Westerman, and F.A. Richard-Hall. 1998. Molecular data confirm the species status of the Christmas Island Hawk-Owl Ninox natalis. Emu 98: 197–208.
Rheindt, F.E., and R.O. Hutchinson. 2007. A photoshot odyssey through the confused avian taxonomy of Seram and Buru (southern Moluccas). BirdingASIA 7: 18–38.