The Peruvian thick-knee was formally described in 1843 by the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob von Tschudi from a specimen collected in the coastal region of Peru.

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

[7] The Peruvian thick-knee is found in South America in the coastal strip between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes.

Its typical habitat is semi-desert areas, agricultural land, dry pasture or well-vegetated river valleys.

Its presence in an area may be most easily detected by its distinctive three-toed footprints in soft sand, and at night by its calls which are somewhat reminiscent of a lapwing (Vanellus sp.).

[8] Little is known of the reproduction of this species[9] but a nest containing two eggs has been observed in June on the Cerros de Naupe, a range of low mountains in Peru.