Yellow-Faced Grassquit
Tiaris olivaceus
About This Species
This small, olive-and-black seedeater favours weedy fields, roadsides, and scrubby grassland edges across Central America and the Caribbean, where it forages low in grass or hops along the ground for seeds. Listen for its thin, buzzy, insect-like song from an exposed grass stem or low perch. It is present year-round in most of its range, so mornings in open, unmowed grassy habitat are the most reliable time to find it.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- A small, common bird that is easy to watch at a modest distance of several metres without disturbing its feeding routine.
- Avoid trampling through dense grass where it may be nesting low to the ground, particularly in the breeding season.
- General wildlife protections against deliberate disturbance of nesting birds apply across its range, though the exact rules differ by country, so caution around any nest is the safer default.
LCAvesPasseriformesThraupidae
Seasonal Activity
349,464 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
Photo
Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.