Overall brown, heavily patterned with dark-centered feathers overlaid with pale buff streaking.

Shows variable amounts of rufous on the underparts, more extensive in the female, and some white in the throat and belly.

This species is monotypic but is sometimes considered conspecific with the Sumba buttonquail and the Common buttonquail it is distinguished from latter by plumage with a much blacker crown and dorsal feathers, much smaller size and, white chin and upper throat for females.

The Luzon buttonquail was known only from drawings and descriptions until January 2009 when a local birdwatching group, the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, took photos and recorded a video of a lone specimen at a public market in the Caraballo Mountains.

[4] The bird from Nueva Vizcaya, northern Luzon, appeared in a news feature by documentary filmmaker Howie Severino, a member of the GMA Network.