Small bunting with crisply-streaked white underparts. Alternate Adult: Warm chestnut-colored face and auriculars framed with black on back half; note small tan ear spot. Dark eye with narrow but conspicuous white eye-ring. Tan supercilium behind eye. Warm chestnut colored medium crown stripe with broad blackish lateral crown stripes. Small, pointed dark bill. Grayish-brown nape has some black streaking. Throat and sub-malar mostly white, but chestnut bleeds onto the chin, upper throat, and upper sub-malar area. Black malar stripe is very narrow near the bill and fans out as it reaches the upper breast. White underparts show evenly-distributed crisp black streaks on breast and flanks and dark breast spot. Back dark brown with whitish striping. Wings vary in color from reddish-brown to grayish-brown but are always streaky with two indistinct pale wing bars. Gray-brown rump. Dark tail with white tail-edges. Short pink legs. Basic Adult: Similar to Alternate, but head pattern is washed out and it lacks white stripes on back. Pale, buffy sub-malar and throat are separated by a broader and more conspicuous black malar stripe. Streaky reddish-brown crown, brown back with black streaks lacks white striping. Immature: Similar to basic adult, but wingbars are more conspicuous and buffy, back striping brown rather than black.
Length: 13 (cm) Wingspan: 21 (cm)
Forests and open shrubby areas.
Forages on ground. Migratory.
Diet consists of seeds and insects.
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