Long-tailed finch length. It has a prominent roundish black bib on its throat and upper chest and a long pointed black tail. It has pinkish brown upperparts with paler plumage below its bib over the lower breast and abdomen. It has a grey head, a white ear-patch, and black lores. It has black patches on its upper flanks and its rump and undertail coverts are white. The beak colour of the adult long-tailed finch varies from red through orange to yellow. The subspecies with red beaks is sometimes called Heck's grass finch "Poephila acuticauda hecki", and the nominate subspecies with orange or
Palatinate (colour) him by Revd Charles Whitley, Reader in Natural Philosophy at the University 1833-1854: An account, written sometime between 1876 and 1896, of Van Mildert's ceremonial entry into County Durham upon his election as bishop in 1826, refers to him wearing "a coat and waistcoat of the Palatinate purple". The scabbard of the civic sword of the City of Durham is described as being "of purple velvet, the colour of the old palatine of Durham". In the mid-19th century, the University tailor referred to the colour used in the hoods as Palatinate Blue, despite it being "really a sort of purple".