However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats it as a subspecies of the rufous-vented ground cuckoo (N. geoffroyi), and the SACC is seeking a proposal to possibly reevaluate their treatment.

Adults have a heavy decurved bill that is greenish with a bluish dusky base and a yellowish tip.

The rest of the underparts are whitish or buffy with chestnut on the flanks, lower belly, and undertail coverts.

Others maintain that the variation in these features in the Amazonian subspecies of rufous-vented ground cuckoos (N. g. amazonicus) makes the distinction questionable, leading to the lack of agreement on its status.

[5] The scaled ground cuckoo is almost exclusively terrestrial, though it flys to low perches to rest or preen.

However, IUCN follows HBW taxonomy and since then has not evaluated the scaled ground cuckoo separately from the rufous-vented.

[8] Because so many details of the species' life history are unknown, its exact status is uncertain, but with its very small range and restricted habitat requirements it is "highly sensitive to human disturbance.