It is found in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

Their face is intricately patterned, with a bright yellow ring around the eye with bare blue skin behind it and thin black lines surrounding the area, a short indistinct whitish stripe above the eye, and cinnamon ocracous cheeks.

Immatures are similar to adults but duller and do not have the pale tips and blackish bands on the tail.

[5] The nominate subspecies of lesser ground cuckoo is found from southern Mexico south through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua into Costa Rica.

M. e. mexicanus is found on the Pacific slope of western Mexico between Sinaloa and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

In Costa Rica it breeds between February and May and its season in Mexico apparently includes May and June.