It was named in honour of the French explorer, collector and ornithologist, François Le Vaillant.

The light morph is black above, faintly glossed bluish or greenish.

The dark morph is black except for the white primary patch and white spots on the outer tail feathers (these are absent in dark pied cuckoo.

The juvenile Levaillant's cuckoo is brown above, rufous on the wing-coverts and rectrix tips, with a buff forehead, face and underparts, and the throat more streaked.

Both the male and female cuckoo fly around acrobatically to distract the host birds.