The adult Madagascar cuckoo-hawk has dark brown upperparts which are paler on the head and an off white rump.

The underwing coverts are heavily barred with brown while the flight feathers have broad dark bands on their underside.

[2] The Madagascar cuckoo-hawk spends a lot of the day perched while searching for insects and lizards and other small vertebrates.

It is most active at dawn and dusk but is apparently uncommon and rarely soars, being most often observed flying between patches of trees with its typical flight of deep flaps interspersed with glides.

[3] Breeding has been recorded in November and December when the nest was situated at the top of a tree which was 14m tall and located in an area of degraded forest adjacent to a marsh.