This species is listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (https://www.iucnredlist.org/).

This species is listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (https://www.iucnredlist.org/).

This has in the past been known as the White-bellied Blue Robin (S. albiventris) and Rufous-bellied Shortwing/Nilgiri Shortwing/Nilgiri Blue Robin (S. major) that occur south and north of the Palghat Gap, respectively. A new genus, Sholicola, has also been recently proposed to circumscribe major, albiventris and ashambuensis (in Ashambu Hills of southern Kerala) as three distinct species (Robin et al. 2017).