These laughingthrushes move in groups in dense forests, producing loud calls but tend to be hard to spot in the undergrowth.

They have brown upperparts, a white throat, a broad black mask through the eye and a heavy bill with pale yellow on the lower mandible.

The Wayanad laughingthrush was described by the British physician and naturalist Thomas Jerdon in 1839 and given the binomial name Crateropus delesserti.

The specific epithet was chosen to honour the French naturalist Adolphe Delessert who had collected specimens from near Kotagiri in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

[4][5][6] Following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, it was moved from Garrulax to the resurrected genus Pterorhinus.

It has some resemblance to the rufous-vented laughingthrush (Pterorhinus gularis) of northeastern India which has a yellow throat.

The species has been recorded near Goa, Castle Rock, Karwar, Dandeli, near Bhatkal although it is rare in the northern part of its range.