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
Laysan finch it survived until the introduction of rats. The fossil record shows that the finch once had a greater range in Hawaii, reaching as far as Oahu, and that birds on Laysan represent a relict population. The Laysan finch nests in vegetation, laying three eggs in a cup-shaped nest. These are incubated for 16 days by the female, the male in turn feeding the female. The chicks fledge after three weeks, and are cared for by the parents for another three weeks. The Laysan finch is a generalist, feeding on seeds, small insects, fruit, carrion (of seabirds and Hawaiian monk seals),