Maranon Sparrow

The Maranon sparrow is about 15 cm (5.9 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly black head with a white throat and a wide white stripe from above the eye down the side of the nape. Their upperparts and tail are olive green. Their lesser wing coverts are olive green and the rest gray; some individuals have small pale tips on them that form two wing bars. Their flight feathers are dusky with blue-gray edges. Their throat is white with a black band below it across the upper breast. Their flanks are gray and the rest of their underparts white. Voice: The Maranon sparrow's song is "a variable high series of thin, buzzy whistles and loose trills, for example: tsew tsew tsi-tetetetete". The song is subtly different from that of its sister black-capped sparrow. Its calls are a "very short, high-pitched tsik", a "high-pitched sibilant or lisping descending tseew", and a "high-pitched buzzy bzee". The first two are usually repeated a few times.