Buffy-fronted Seedeater

The buffy-fronted seedeater is about 12.5 cm (4.9 in) long and weighs 19.8 to 21 g (0.70 to 0.74 oz). It is the largest member of genus Sporophila and has a short bill with a deep base and a strongly curved culmen. Adult males have a mostly grayish head with a creamy "eyebrow" behind the eye, a white arc below the ear coverts, and sometimes creamy patches above the lores that do not meet on the forehead (the "front"). Their upperparts and tail are olive. Their wings are mostly olive with buffish tips on the median and greater coverts and buffish bases on the outer primaries. The former show as two wing bars and the latter as a "handkerchief" on the folded wing. Their throat is white with an olive band below it across the breast and continuing along the flanks. The rest of their underparts are mostly whitish with buffy undertail coverts. Females have an olive head without the male's white and creamy areas. Their upperparts and tail are olive and their wings olive with buffy olive wing bars. Their throat and underparts are pale olive. Both sexes have a dark iris and dusky pinkish to blackish legs. Males have an orange to dull horn bill with sometimes a duskier culmen; female's bills are similar but darker.

The buffy-fronted seedeater is found along the southeastern Brazilian coastal area mostly from Espirito Santo and eastern Minas Gerais south to northern Rio Grande do Sul. There are a number of records to the north in Bahia and scattered records to the west of the main range. Though some sources also place the species in Argentina and Paraguay the South American Classification Committee has only unconfirmed records from those countries. It is a species of the Atlantic Forest. It inhabits humid forest, nearby secondary forest, and the edges and clearings of denser forest. It is almost entirely found in areas with Guadua and Chusquea bamboo. In elevation it ranges up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft).

The buffy-fronted seedeater feeds primarily on the seeds of grasses. It appears to prefer those of Guadua bamboo but readily feeds on Chusquea and Merostachys seeds as well. In the absence of bamboo seeds it takes some insects. It typically forages in large flocks, taking the seeds while clinging to vegetation rather than on the ground.