[2] The pheasant coucal is unusual among Australian cuckoos in that it incubates and raises its own young instead of laying its eggs in the nest of another species.

The ornithologist John Latham described the pheasant coucal as Cuculus phasianinus in 1801, based on a drawing by Thomas Watling.

[3] Six subspecies are recognised, two of which are found in Australia with an abrupt demarcation between them occurring around the Burdekin River in Central Queensland.

The little known subspecies mui is found in eastern Timor, and has distinctive white plumage of its upperparts, head and breast.

Subspecies thierfelderi is found in the Trans-fly region in the south of the island and is intermediate between melanurus and nigricans.