This species is described a large plain coloured cuckooshrike with red eyes and barring belly and rump.

[2] The Visayan cuckooshrike was formally described in 1890 by the American ornithologist Joseph Beal Steere based on a specimen collected on the island of Panay in the Philippines.

[3][4] It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the bar-bellied cuckooshrike (Coracina striata) but was promoted to species status based on the differences in morphology and vocalizations.

[6] Its natural habitat is tropical moist lownland and montane forests up to 2,000 meters above sea level.

Negros Island is one of the most deforested areas in the country due to its sugar industry and logging with most of its forests being totally lost before the 21st century.

It also occurs in the proposed Central Panay Mountain Range Park which contains the largest block of remaining forest in the Western Visayas, and the tourist destination of Twin Lakes (Mount Talinis).