The Streaky Seedeater is a stocky finch with heavy streaking over pale ochre to whitish underparts. It mainly picks small seeds from the ground or vegetation.
It has a short conical bill, brown upperparts with pale streaks, and pale ochre underparts with fine brown marks. The graueri race is darker above and more strongly streaked below.
Small seeds form most of its diet, though it also takes berries and small insects. In Kenya, birds may move short distances from drier to wetter areas to feed outside the breeding season.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.