Its flight is high, fast and direct, with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general.

The scaled pigeon was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[3][4] The scaled pigeon was moved to the resurrected genus Patagioenas based on a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2001.

Adult males have mainly purple brown plumage, with a paler scaly appearance to the neck and underparts.

[10] The call is a series of deep cooing cro ku-ks that differs markedly from that of its relatives, such as the white-crowned pigeon.