The collared puffbird (Bucco capensis)

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the collared puffbird in his Ornithologie that was based on a specimen collected in French Guiana. He used the French name Le barbu and the Latin name Bucco.[4] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.[5] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.[5] One of these was the collared puffbird. Linnaeus included a terse description, coined the binomial name Bucco capensis, and cited Brisson's work.[6] The specific epithet capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope where Linnaeus mistakenly believed the birds occurred.[7]

The collared puffbird is currently (2021) treated as monotypic. The population in the western part of its range has been suggested as a subspecies, Bucco capensis dugandi, but most authorities do not accept it