The red gurnard was first formally described in 1758 as Trigla cuculus by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae with the type locality given as the Mediterranean Sea.

[5] The specific name cuculus is Latin for "cuckoo", a name which can be traced as far back as Aristotle, who claimed that gurnards made cuckoo-like noises when taken from the water.

[6] The red gurnard has a large angular head which does not have a deep occipital groove but has a steep snout,[7][8] which is elongated forward with a flattened, two lobed rostrum covered in denticles.

[3] The red gurnard is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean from southern Scotland, although it has been recorded infrequently from Norway, south to Mauritania, including the Madeira, the Azores and the Canary Islands.

[9] The red gurnard was found, in a study of this species in the Adriatic Sea, to feed almost entirely (more than 90%) on malacostracan crustaceans with fishes, molluscs and echinoderms taken in much smaller amounts.