The vernacular name refers to the prominent joints in the long greenish-grey legs, and bistriatus to the two stripes of the head pattern.

The double-striped thick-knee was formally described in 1829 by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler from a specimen collected in Mexico.

[3] The double-striped thick-knee is now placed in the genus Burhinus that was erected by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger in 1811.

It has finely streaked grey-brown upperparts, and a paler brown neck and breast merging into the white belly.

The four subspecies differ in size and plumage tone, but individual variation makes identification of races difficult.