This bird was discovered in 1832 by the Reverend John Bachman, who discovered the species near Charleston, South Carolina, and presented study skins and descriptions to his friend and collaborator, John James Audubon [REF].
Bachman's warbler does not have any extremely close relatives, though the blue-winged and the rapidly declining golden-winged warblers, are also members of the genus Vermivora, are thought to be its closest relatives [REF].