This small sparrow is restricted to dry upland grasslands in northeastern Mexico. It keeps low among short shrubs and feeds mostly on seeds in winter.
It is small, slim and long-tailed, with a pink bill, rusty crown, plain grey face and dark legs. The sexes look alike; juveniles have dusky streaking on the head, chest and flanks.
It feeds on the ground or low in shrubs and sometimes hawks insects from a perch. Weed seeds dominate its winter diet; insects, spiders and moths are added during nesting. It builds a grass cup low in or beneath a shrub, or on the ground.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.