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.