This species is known from a single fossil specimen consisting of a partial skeleton including vertebra, ribs, hips, and upper legs.

The specimen (museum catalog number IVPP V9934) was discovered in the Jiufotang Formation near the city of Chaoyang in Liaoning province, China.

Chaoyangia were small, basal euornithean birds characterized by more than eight fused sacral vertebrae (those connected to the hips), uniquely long, slender, and angled uncinate processes on the ribs, and a distinct 'neck' in the upper leg bone (femur).

[1] When additional specimens were found and referred to the species in 1997, it was regarded as a member of the Ornithurae (=Euornithes), the lineage including modern birds but not enantiornitheans.

[1] In 2012, paleontologists Jingmai O'Connor and Zhou Zhong re-described the original Chaoyangia specimen, and confirmed that it was indeed a primitive euornithean (=ornithuran) using a phylogenetic analysis.