It occurs in temperate South America and is introduced into Germany and the Netherlands (colony on the border, Zwilbrockervenn) . Like all flamingos it lays a single chalky white egg on a mud mound.

The plumage is pinker than the slightly larger Greater Flamingo, but less so than Caribbean Flamingo. It can be differentiated from these species by its greyish legs with pink "knees", and also by the larger amount of black on the bill (more than half).