Like all Plasmodium species P. pinotti has both vertebrate and insect hosts.

The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are birds.

The parasite was first described by Muniz and Soares in 1954.

It was named after Mario Pinotti.

Known hosts of this species include the bananaquit (Coereba flaveola), orangequit (Euneornis campestris), yellow-shouldered grassquit (Loxipasser anoxanthus), large toucan (Ramphastos toco) and black-faced grassquit (Tiaris bicolor).