James's Flamingo has pale pink plumage, black flight feathers, red legs, and a short yellow bill with a black tip. It feeds in shallow high-Andean salt lakes and moves lower when wetlands freeze.
The body is pale pink, with bright crimson streaks on the neck and back and black flight feathers. Its small bill is bright yellow with a black tip, the skin around the eyes is deep crimson, and the legs are red. Immature birds are gray.
It feeds on diatoms and algae in shallow high-altitude salt lakes. When the wetlands freeze in winter, it moves to lower elevations within the Andes.
It usually lays one egg in a mud mound, with both parents taking turns incubating for about 27–31 days.
Chicks hatch with straight bills that curve downward as they grow. Parents feed them a nutritious fluid produced in the upper digestive tract.
It has three forward-pointing toes and no hind toe, a feature shared with the Andean flamingo.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.