A large seed-eating bird. Large gray conical bill. Male is dark blue overall with two reddish-brown wing bars and black feathers around base of bill. Female is brown overall, dark wings and tail, ...

The male has a yellow-green body and a black crown and bib, while the female is striped brown and cream, just tinged with yellow. Not as common as they were, these cheeky little garden birds will eat ...

In his memoir, The Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin noted, almost as if in awe, "One might really fancy that, from an original paucity of birds in this ... ground-dwelling, seed-eating finch.