Rare, threatened, and spectacularly-plumaged black-and-white guan with a long black tail. Head is striking with bold white eyering and shaggy white cap contrasting with its red and blue wattle, its blue, black-tipped bill, and its black face. Usually seen in the canopy of large and well-preserved patches of montane and lowland Atlantic Forest. The song is a high-pitched rising whistle, but also often makes distinctive wing-whirrs like other guans.