The guira cuckoo was described and illustrated in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae.

[3] Later ornithologists based their descriptions on Marcgrave's account: Francis Willughby in 1678,[4] John Ray in 1713,[5] Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760,[6] and Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779.

[7] When the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1788 he included the guira cuckoo.

The species has dark brown upperparts streaked with white, and whitish-buff throat, breast, underparts and rump.

Like other members of the subfamily Crotophaginae, the guira cuckoo gives off a strong, pungent odour.

[13] The guira cuckoo is a bird of open habitats such as pastures and wetlands, and its range has expanded significantly due to deforestation.

The guira cuckoo is an opportunistic predator, gathering small prey items on the ground or searching for them among branches.