24 January 2010, Old Gamboa Road, Summit, Panama

This is a male with an all dark hood. The females are rather drab and very
difficult to distinguish from female Variable Seedeaters (S. americana).
More on this later. Not all individuals have the underparts this yellow,
and some appear almost white below.

This is the nominate race which ranges from Costa Rica south. Two other
races are found locally in South America. One (S. n. vivida) has a darker
back and the other (S. n. inconspicua) has a reduced amount of black on the
head.

Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LZ5 | Nikon FieldScope 3 | 30X WA | hand-held
(no adapter)