Morelet's Seedeater

Morelet's seedeater is about 11 cm (4.3 in) long and weighs an average of 8.7 g (0.31 oz). It has a short thick bill with a rounded culmen. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of subspecies S. m. sharpei in breeding plumage have a blackish crown, nape, and sides of the head with a white crescent below the eye. Their back is olive-gray with scattered black mottling and their rump is paler and buffier. Their wings are black with white at the base of most primaries and two buffy white wing bars. Their tail is black with thin gray feather tips. Their throat and the sides of their neck are buffy white with a small amount of mottled black below the sides. The rest of their underparts are cinnamon buff to whitish buff. Adult females are mostly grayish olive to brownish olive. Their wings and tail are gray; the wings have no white on the primaries and the wing bars are thinner than the male's. Males of the nominate subspecies S. m. morelleti have a black crown, nape, and sides of the head with a larger white eye crescent than sharpei. They are solid black below the white sides of the neck and the color crosses the breast in a wide band below their white throat. S. m. mutanda is like morelleti but has a mostly black throat. The two females are like the sharpei female. Both sexes of all subspecies have a brown iris and gray legs. …

The subspecies of Morelet's seedeater are found thus:

S. m. sharpei: from the Lower Rio Grande Valley in far southern Texas, USA, south into northeastern Mexico through central Tamaulipas and eastern San Luis Potosí S. m. morelleti: from northern Veracruz in eastern Mexico south on the Gulf/Caribbean slope through most of Guatemala and Belize and then on both the Caribbean and Pacific slopes through Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica to western Panama's Bocas del Toro and Chiriquí provinces; also Mujeres, Cozumel, and Cancún islands S. m. mutanda: from southern Chiapas in southwestern Mexico south through western Guatemala and El Salvador. Morelet's seedeater primarily inhabits open grassy areas such as pastures, roadsides, weedy agricultural fields, and grassy marshes. It is often found near water. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 2,000 m (6,600 ft).

Morelet's seedeater feeds primarily on seeds, especially those of grasses, and adds insects to its diet during the breeding season. It usually plucks seeds while clinging to grass stems, though it will also pluck them while on the ground. It feeds in small groups throughout the year, and the groups often include other seed-eating species.