This little bird resembles a female house sparrow, although there are slight differences. Both sexes have a dark eye stripe with a pale stripe above this. They also have a pale lower beak, compared to the dark upper. There underparts are a greyish-white with buff streaks and the upper parts are a grey-brown, streaked with buff and black. A fairly nondescript bird, although they do have a pale-yellow spot in the centre of their throats, but this is usually hard to see.