[3][4] The laughing falcon was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.

Linnaeus based his account on information from one of his students, Daniel Rolander, who had visited the Dutch colony of Surinam in South America.

[5][6] The laughing falcon is now the only species placed in the genus Herpetotheres that was introduced in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot.

[2][13] The laughing falcon's generic name Herpetotheres refers to its preferred food; it is Latinized Ancient Greek, derived from [h]erpeton (ἑρπετόν, "reptile") + therizein (θερίζειν, "to mow down").

Adults of the nominate subspecies have creamy white underparts that vary somewhat among individuals, seasonally, and with feather wear.

The underside of their wing is pale buff, sometimes with some dusky spotting on the underwing coverts, and the flight feathers have cinnamon rufous bases and darker bars.

[13][17] Immature laughing falcons differ little from adults; they have lighter margins to the back feathers, producing a scalloped effect.

[17] Subspecies H. c. fulvescens has the same plumage pattern as the nominate but is darker and richer colored overall; its underside is more cinnamon buff than creamy white.

It is found from southern Sonora and San Luis Potosi south through Central America, "exiting" through northeastern Panama into northern Colombia.

[13] The laughing falcon inhabits a wide variety of semi-open treed landscapes, shunning the interior of dense forests.

[13][17] The laughing falcon's flight is slow, with quick, shallow wingbeats interspersed with glides; the bird rarely if ever soars.

[13] The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas, Mexico, believe that the laughing falcon can kill venomous snakes because the birds are healers that can cure themselves if they are bitten.

Tzotzil healers imitate the call of a laughing falcon in order to cure a snake bite.

It has an extremely large range and an estimated population of at least a half million mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing.