Little Inca-Finch

The little Inca finch is 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weighs about 20 g (0.71 oz). It has a long tail and a slim pointed bill. The species is sexually dimorphic though the sexes are very similar. Adult males have a mostly gray head and nape, black lores, and a black forecrown and mask that extends past and under the eye. Their back and rump are mostly brown with rufous scapulars and faint streaks. Their uppertail coverts are gray. Their wings are mostly black or dusky with rufous brown edges on the inner coverts and tertials and gray edges on the rest of the coverts and flight feathers. Their tail's central pair of feathers are black and the rest black with some to much white on the inner webs. Their chin and upper throat are black, their lower throat and breast are gray, their flanks have a gray wash, and their belly and undertail coverts are buff. Adult females have the same plumage pattern as males but have a browner crown and more conspicuous streaks on the back. Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a bright yellow bill, and yellow or pale brown legs and feet.

The little Inca finch is found in northwestern Peru only in the lower valley of the Marañón River and its tributaries in northeastern Cajamarca and west-central Amazonas departments. It inhabits arid scrublands with cacti and terrestrial bromeliads. In elevation it ranges between 350 and 900 m (1,100 and 3,000 ft).

The little Inca finch's diet has not been studied but appears to include seeds. It forages on the ground, usually singly or in pairs.