Male Blue-Black Grassquit
Female Blue-Black Grassquit
The grassquits do not attend the feeders, but seem to be most comfortable where there are large numbers of other birds - perhaps gaining some security from the sounds of the other birds as they go about their business of eating grass seeds. When the lawns are well trimmed, these birds are hard to find - perhaps seeds that they find the most appetizing are the ones we humans classify as weeds. I am not certain of this; it is possible that weed poisons are a danger to this bird.
The male gives the bird its common name; the females and young tend to look similar and are usually distinguishable by size - the mature birds, intuitively, being larger. They are smaller than the bananaquits and barred antshrikes, probably about 10 cm long from my own observations. The male, commonly called 'Johnny Jump-up' and accused of being called 'Ci-ci-zeb' distinguishes itself easily from the shiny cowbird by its behavior - the distinctive jumping up and down accompanied by the spreading of wings and tail while making the call, jweeeee which becomes higher in pitch toward the end.
The females are not so easily seen, and can be confused with the common house wren. The easiest way to differentiate the two is the beak; the grassquit's beak is short and stubby.
Wikipedia reference: Blue-black Grassquit
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