Habits
Shy and retiring. Usually in pairs, never in flocks.
Food
Insects, spders and seeds procured on the ground. Also berries and invertebrates taken from low bushes.
Voice
Call is a metallic 'chuck'. Song of the male consists of whistles and slurred notes 'tsweet-tsweet tsweet-tsweet ti-ti-ti', followed by a trill, usually uttered from the ground or a low perch.
Black-striped Sparrow (Arremonops conirostris) [XC601479]
by Kent Livezey from Reserva Buenaventura (western access track), Pi\u00f1as, El Oro, Ecuador (call, song)
Black-striped Sparrow (Arremonops conirostris) [XC273704]
by Peter Boesman from Mana Dulce, Cundinamarca, Colombia (song)
Subspecies
Relationships of genus not well understood; molecular evidence suggests that it is close to Rhynchospiza, Peucaea and some Ammodramus. Sometimes considered conspecific with Green-backed Sparrow (Arremonops chloronotus), with which virtually sympatric in north-central Honduras, but differs significantly in juvenile plumage, size and vocalizations.
The following 7 subspecies are recognised:
richmondi (Bonaparte, 1850) - Tropical zone from eastern Honduras south to western Panama.
viridicatus Wetmore, 1957 - Coiba I, off Veraguas, in southern Panama.
striaticeps (Lafresnaye, 1853) - Central and eastern Panama (both slopes) and Pacific slope of Colombia south to western Ecuador.
conirostris (Bonaparte, 1850) - Caribbean coast of Colombia from Bolívar (upper Sinú Valley) east to foothills of Santa Marta Mts, southern in Magdalena Valley (except uppermost parts), also eastern slopes of eastern Andes in Arauca and Boyaca. Also northern and western Venezuela (Falcón and Lara east to Sucre, south to south-western Táchira, Apure, Guárica and northern Bolívar) and extreme northern Brazil (R Branco region).
inexpectatus Chapman, 1914 - Arid tropical and subtropical zones of upper Magdalena Valley, in Colombia.
umbrinus Todd, 1923 - Eastern Colombia (Norte de Santader) and western Venezuela (southern and west of L Maracaibo).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet