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
Purple-throated cotinga coverts, have white fringes. There is also a conspicuous white wingstripe and white edges to the tertial feathers. Additionally the male has a deeply purple throat and a white belly, with some black barring on its rear flanks. In contrast, the female purple-throated cotinga is a dark brown with pale buffy margins on the upperparts. The underparts are a buffy cinnamon with black barring. The throat is a deeper, unbarred rufous in coloration. The female's tail feathers are longer and more pointed at the tip than those of the male. The juvenile purple-throated cotinga resembles a paler, buffier female; the