This finch has black and dark red plumage, and individuals differ in bill size. Adults eat seeds, while parents feed nestlings a soft diet made mostly of insects.
The back and tail are black, while the head, throat, and rump are dark red. It has a white eye-ring and small-, large-, and mega-billed forms; the polymorphism is not sex-related.
Adults eat sedge seeds and other seeds. Parents feed nestlings a soft diet made mostly of insects until fledging, and the bill forms use different food niches.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.