Small finchlike bird, actually more closely related to tanagers. Male is uniform slaty gray overall with no contrasting plumage features. Female is paler grayish with some buffy tones on face and blurry streaking on breast. Best feature on both sexes is bill: fairly long and very pointy. A nomadic bamboo specialist, difficult to reliably locate because populations move around to follow seeding Chusquea bamboo. Usually seen singly or in pairs; typically stays on or near the ground. Listen for stuttering high-pitched song.