dickcissel

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

Dickcissel (Spiza americana)

Read Next

animal. Amphibian. Frog. Anura. Ranidae. Frog in grass.

Abundant Animals: The Most Numerous Organisms in the World

Common, or southern, cassowary (Casuarius casuarius).

8 Birds That Can’t Fly

Spider monkey swinging in a tree. (primate, jungle animal)

Why Do Animals Have Tails?

Black-headed gulls perching on a roof with bird droppings, often seen in flocks around London, England, in winter time. The "black head" develops during the breeding season. (black headed, birds, guano, bird poop)

White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) at Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. (birds)

15 of the Best Birdsongs (According to Britannica)

Discover

A human Inuit skull in a stone chambered cairn in Ilulissat in Greenland. These ancient graves are pre christian and are at least 2000

14 Tough Questions Answered

Baseball laying in the grass. Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics

10 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time

Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

Diverse elementary school children wearing school uniforms running outside of school. Boys girls

Pro and Con: School Uniforms

Rural Irish landscape, Sligo, Ireland.

Why Is Ireland Two Countries?

Iraqi Army Soldiers from the 9th Mechanized Division learning to operate and maintain M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks at Besmaya Combat Training Center, Baghdad, Iraq, 2011. Military training. Iraq war. U.S. Army

8 Deadliest Wars of the 21st Century

dickcissel

bird

Also known as: Spiza americana

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

dickcissel, (Spiza americana), American bird usually placed in the family Cardinalidae. The male dickcissel—named for its song—is a streaky brown bird 16 cm (6.5 inches) long, with a black bib on its yellow breast, looking somewhat like a miniature meadowlark. Dickcissels are seedeaters. They breed in weedy fields of the central United States and winter in northern South America; some stray to the Atlantic coast in winter.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Richard Pallardy.