The New Guinea Megapode lives in lowland and foothill forest. It has dark plumage, a reddish face, and a pointed crest at the back of the head, with large feet adapted for digging.
Its neck and underparts are sooty gray, while the back and wings are dark brown. A reddish face, yellowish bill, dark legs, and a pointed rear crest help identify it.
New Guinea Megapodes use mounds of gathered forest litter to incubate eggs. At Crater Mountain, Papua New Guinea, some mounds also held eggs of Brown-collared Talegallas, Talegalla jobiensis.
For a report published in 2002, Sinclair excavated mounds to identify their eggs and observed attending birds. Eggs of the two species were similarly pinkish-brown but differed in size. Finding both kinds together documented sharing of an incubation site.
Comparisons among three megapode species found differences in mound surroundings, while New Guinea Megapode and talegalla sites were similar. Their nesting environments overlapped within the same forest.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The Crater Mountain study identified forest cutting and conversion to gardens as habitat concerns. Sinclair recommended avoiding cultivation and tree cutting near mounds and retaining surrounding natural forest.