The Jacobin cuckoo was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1780.

[3] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle.

The specific epithet jacobinus and the English name Jacobin refer to the pied plumage which resembles the black and white garments of monks belonging to the Dominican Order.

[8] The three subspecies with their breeding ranges are:[9] This medium-sized, slim black and white cuckoo with a crest is distinctive.

This is larger and longer winged than the nominate subspecies found in the southern peninsular region and Sri Lanka is said to be a local migrant.

Subspecies pica has been said to be the form that migrates between Africa and India[11] however Rasmussen & Anderton (2005) suggest serratus as being the valid name for the Afro-Indian migrants.

[11] In the breeding season, birds call from prominent perches and chase each other with slow wing-beats and pigeon like clapping flight.

[11] Multiple eggs may be laid in the nest of a host and two young cuckoos were found to fledge successfully in several occasions.

[31] Satya Churn Law, however noted that in Bengal, the bird associated with the "chataka" of Sanskrit was the common iora unlike the Jacobin cuckoo suggested by European orientalists.

[32] To compound the issues with matching vernacular names, it has been pointed out that in Bengal chātak also refers to skylarks (which are also crested).

[33] It is also mentioned in the poem 'Are ghaas ki roti' where it is said that if Maharana Pratap was to surrender to Akbar, a dystopian future will ensue where the chātak will drink water from the ground.