They have large eyes and are brown with streaks and pale marks making it hard to spot against the background of soils and rocks.

The Indian stone-curlew was formally described in 1866 by the Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori based on specimens obtained in India.

[3] The Indian stone-curlew is now placed in the genus Burhinus that was erected in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger in 1811.

[6] This species is restricted to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam.

[1] It is found in thin dry deciduous forest, scrub, stony hillsides and fallow lands.

The normal clutch is 2 to 3 stone colored eggs laid inside a scrape on bare ground, sometimes at the base of a bush.