Streaky Seedeater

The Streaky Seedeater is a medium-sized finch, quite stocky and heavily streaked with a large head, short and conical beak and a long lightly-toothed tail. There is no sexual dimorphism. The upperparts are generally brown streaked with buff and the underparts buffish to whitish. The brown head is marked by long and wide buffish-white eyebrows reaching the back of the neck. The lores, parotids and sides of the throat are dark brown, the eye is underlined by a small buffy crescent, and a small variable-sized buffy moustache can be seen on the cheek. Looking in front, a clearly buffish-white tinged, or not, with yellow bib is visible. The base of the conical beak is brown and the mandibles are rosaceous. The iris is brown or chestnut-colored. The legs are dark brown. The cap and the neck are brown, more or less streaked with buff-white. The mantle, back and scapular feathers are brown-olive heavily streaked with blackish-brown and bordered with buff-white. The rump is pale-brown streaked with a darker hue and the rectrices are dark-brown fringed with green-olive. The flight feathers are blackish with the primaries finely bordered with yellow-green or green-olive, and the secondaries bordered by brown-olive becoming largely white. The coverts, chest and flanks are buff-white finely streaked with brown. The belly is whitish more or less streaked. Individuals of the subspecies C. s. graueri are slightly darker on the upperparts than the nominal subspecies C. s. striolata, with fine or indistinct green edgings on the flight feathers, and more heavily streaked on the underparts with a deeper or richer buff-brown. The juvenile is similar to the adult, but duller.The forehead and crown are lighter tans and the lower parts are generally less streaked.