It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

[1][2] The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) treats the Chilean elaenia as a monotypic species.

Adults have a mostly dark olive to olive-gray head with a partially hidden white stripe in the middle of the crest.

Their flight feathers have narrow whitish or yellowish edges with dusky bases on the inner pairs.

Its distribution in the austral winter is not fully understood but it appears to leave almost all if its breeding range and move east across Argentina to the Atlantic, north through Peru east of the Andes and just into far southeastern Colombia, and northeast through northern Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and much of Brazil as far as Bahia and Pará.

[2][6][7][8][9][excessive citations] The Chilean elaenia's diet has not been detailed but is known to include insects and fruit.

The Chilean elaenia's dawn song is "a short, slightly raspy two- or three-note phrase".