[3] Its binomial nomenclature honors the 19th century Italian explorer of East Africa Carlo Piaggia.

The adults are a deep rufous orange on the head and face with a distinct white eye ring, the orange colour becomes les rufous on the breast and flanks and the upperparts are olive brown except for the orange-brown rump and tail.

[3] There are six currently recognised subspecies of Abyssinian ground thrush[2] and they are listed below with their distributions:[6] The Abyssinian ground thrush occurs in the undergrowth of evergreen montane forest in high rainfall regions between 1,800 and 3,300 m (5,910 and 10,830 ft), mostly above 2,500 m (8,200 ft), although occasionally found lower.

It may also occur in bamboo forest, e.g. on Mount Kenya, or in exotic pine plantations in Ethiopia.

tanganjicae and G.p kilimensis have sometimes been regarded as separate species but they do not differ very much from the other subspecies in voice or morphology and most authorities lump them with Abyssinian ground thrush.