[2] The genus Pipile has been treated as including anywhere from one to five species depending on the criteria used by the various authors and taxonomic systems.

[3] By early 2023, major worldwide taxonomic systems had settled on five species including the white-throated piping guan (P. grayi), which had been considered a subspecies of the blue-throated.

Most of their plumage is blackish with a greenish blue gloss that is strongest on the shoulders, wings, and tail.

White to cobalt blue bare skin surrounds the dark reddish brown eye.

Bare skin forming a dewlap can be white to cobalt blue, slaty purple, dark purplish gray, or black.

It inhabits humid tropical forest of the Amazon Basin including terra firme, várzea, gallery, and semi-deciduous types.

[3] The blue-throated piping guan is thought to be mostly sedentary but it possibly makes local or elevational movements according to the availability of fruit.

Another display is "wing-whirring... two quick and often barely audible wing-claps, followed by two or three whirring rattles...using the wings, prrrrrrrip-purrrrrr" The sound has "been likened to a deck of cards being fanned backwards and forwards.

Its "preference for river edges and the species' conspicuous habits have apparently rendered it more vulnerable than other cracids of tropical forests."