The Buff-headed Coucal is a large coucal of the Solomon Islands' humid forests. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a black body with a buff head and chest.
Adult nominate Buff-headed Coucals have buff on the head, chest, scapulars, and fore-mantle, with black over the rest of the plumage. The iris is red to reddish brown and the legs are blue-grey.
It searches for food mainly on the ground and sometimes climbs trees. The account reports insects as its main food and also lists millipedes.
The subspecies C. m. albidiventris is described as having whitish underparts.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.