The breast is also dark brown with pale feather edges that give a scalloped or scaly effect.

[4] The scaled chachalaca is endemic to southeastern Brazil from southern São Paulo through Paraná and Santa Catarina into Rio Grande do Sul.

Its nest is a shallow bowl of twigs and leaves, typically placed in a concealed fork of a tree up to about 3 m (10 ft) above ground.

The scaled chachalaca's song is "a raucous, very noisy but highly variable 'racket', given in duet or chorus from multiple individuals, cacataPOOP, cacataPOP, cacataWHUMP, cacataWEEcata on [one] pitch."

It also makes "an irregular but sometimes rhythmic cackling or throaty bubbling, cuhcuh-cuhCAHcuhcuhcucCAH cuhcuhcuhcuh...."[4] The IUCN has assessed the scaled chachalaca as being of Least Concern.