Cirl Bunting; Escribano soteño

Passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. Small bird, 15-16.5 cm in length, with a wing-span 22-22.5 cm. The male has a bright yellow head, with a black crown, eyestripe and throat, and a greenish breast band across its otherwise yellow underparts, and a heavily streaked brown back. The female is more bluff colored with more linear face pattern, streaked grey-brown rump and chestnut shoulders. It has a thick seed-eater's bill. The monotonous song of the male is rattling trill.