Marañón 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. They have a brown iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet.

The Maranon sparrow is found in the upper watershed of the Marañón River. Its range begins on the tributary Chinchipe River in extreme southern Ecuador's Zamora-Chinchipe Province and extends south in Peru to near the Marañón's headwaters in southern Amazonas Department. It primarily inhabits somewhat dry tropical deciduous forest and gallery forest; locally it occurs in more humid evergreen forest. In elevation it reaches 1,800 m (5,900 ft).

The Maranon sparrow's diet has not been studied; it is assumed to include insects, seeds, and fruits. It usually is seen singly or in pairs. It forages on the ground or near it in low vegetation. It usually does not join mixed-species feeding flocks.