DICKCISSEL

(Spiza americana), American bird usually placed in the subfamily Cardinalinae of the family Fringillidae (the Emberizidae of some authors). The male dickcisselnamed for its songis a streaky brown bird 16 cm (6.5 inches) long, with a black bib on its yellow breast, looking somewhat like a miniature meadowlark . Dickcissels are seedeaters. They breed in weedy fields of the central United States and winter in northern South America; some stray to the Atlantic coast in winter.