[2][1] The genus Pipile has been treated as including anywhere from one to five species depending on the criteria used by the various authors and taxonomic systems.

The crown feathers are hair-like and have black or brownish black shafts that show as streaks The outer wing coverts are also white and show as a large patch on the folded wing; the inner coverts have white spots.

White to cobalt blue bare skin surrounds the dark reddish brown eye.

[7] The white-throated piping-guan is found from extreme southeastern Peru through north-central and eastern Bolivia into southwestern Brazil and northern Paraguay.

It inhabits humid tropical forest of the Amazon Basin including terra firme, várzea, and gallery types, and also cerrado woodland.

[7] The white-throated piping guan is thought to be mostly sedentary but it possibly makes local or elevational movements according to the availability of fruit.

Another display is "wing-whirring... two quick and often barely audible wing-claps, followed by two or three whirring rattles...using the wings, prrrrrrrip-purrrrrr" The sound has "been likened to a deck of cards being fanned backwards and forwards.