Breeding occurs from February to April and in October, with the species building cup nests and laying clutches of two bright blue to greenish-blue eggs.

It is classified as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to its very large range, fairly large population, and a lack of significant population decline, but its numbers are thought to be decreasing and it is threatened by habitat destruction and habitat fragmentation.

The chestnut-hooded laughingthrush was originally described in 1879 as Ianthocincla treacheri by the British ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe on the basis of specimens from Mount Kinabalu in Borneo.

[4][5] It was subsequently considered a subspecies of the chestnut-capped laughingthrush and moved into the genus Garrulax as part of that species.

[6][7] In 2007, the ornithologists Nigel Collar and Craig Robson restored the chestnut-hooded laughingthrush to full species status.

[8] Following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, it was moved to the resurrected genus Pterorhinus.

[9] The name of the genus, Pterorhinus, is derived from the Ancient Greek words pteron (feather) and rhinos (nostril).

[10] "Chestnut-hooded laughingthrush" is the official common name designated by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU).

These two species were sister (most closely related) to a clade (group of organisms descending from a common ancestor) formed by the rufous-necked, chestnut-backed, and black-throated laughingthrushes.

The side of the neck and the upperparts are slaty-grey with a slight yellowish-brown tinge, with a long white patch on the primaries.

[14] The song of the chestnut-hooded laughingthrush is a fluty, high-pitched chu-wu, chwi-wi-wi-wi-wiee-wiu-wu with rather clicky starting notes or a rising and falling wiu-wu-wu-wi-wi-wee-wu.

[15] The species forages by hopping up slanting branches in a woodpecker-like manner without using its tail for support and taking insects from the surface.