The yellow-eared toucanet (''Selenidera spectabilis'') is a

near-passerine Near passerines and higher land-bird assemblage are terms of traditional, pre-cladistic taxonomy that have often been given to tree-dwelling birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines (order Passeriformes) owing to mor ...

bird in the toucan family

Ramphastidae Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five g ...

. It is found from Honduras to Ecuador.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

Despite its placement in genus ''Selenidera'', the yellow-eared toucanet might be more closely related to the mountain toucans of genus ''

Andigena ''Andigena'', the mountain toucans, is a genus of birds in the family Ramphastidae. They are found in humid highland forests in the Andes of South America, ranging from Bolivia to Venezuela. These medium-sized toucan Toucans (, ) are members ...

''.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 July 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved July 24, 2022 It is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

Description

The yellow-eared toucanet is long and weighs . It is the largest and most distinctively plumaged member of its genus. Males and females have the same bill pattern but the female's bill is shorter. The bill has a vertical black line at its base. The

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...

is yellow with a triangle of olive brown below it narrowing from the base and horn-colored tips on the

tomium In anatomy, the tomium is the sharp cutting edge of the beak of a bird or the bill of a turtle. Sometimes the edge is serrated for tearing through flesh or vegetation. See also * Culmen (bird) The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomic ...

. The

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

is dark olive to brownish black. Adult males have a black cap that extends down the hindneck, blue to green bare skin around the eye, and a large yellow tuft that extends back behind the eye. Their back and uppertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are s ...

are green and their tail blackish. They are black from their chin to their belly with a yellow patch on the flank, chestnut thighs, and red undertail coverts. Adult females have a chestnut forehead and hindneck and lack the male's yellow ear tuft. Immatures are duller than adults and the pattern on their bills is less distinct. Males' black is sooty and females' chestnut is brownish.Short, L.L. (2020). Yellow-eared Toucanet (''Selenidera spectabilis''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.yeetou1.01 retrieved December 24, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The yellow-eared toucanet is found from northeastern Honduras south through Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and western Colombia into extreme northwestern Ecuador. It inhabits wet forested slopes and ridges, nearby secondary forest, and fruit trees close to the forest edge. In elevation it mostly ranges between but occurs as low as sea level. It also occurs as high as about but in Honduras is unknown above .

Behavior

Movement

The yellow-eared toucanet is known to move from higher to lower elevations after the breeding season in Costa Rica and Panama, but whether this is universal or done only by younger birds is not known.

Feeding

The yellow-eared toucanet usually forages in pairs or small groups, and usually from the forest's mid level to the canopy. It does feed at fruiting bushes near the ground. Its diet has not been detailed but is known to be mostly fruit and also include

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

s and lizards.

Breeding

The yellow-eared toucanet's breeding season in much of its range is from April to August; it might start somewhat earlier in Honduras and as early as February in Colombia. Courting adults sing while tossing their heads and flipping their tails back and forth. The clutch size is believed to be two to four eggs, but nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.

Vocalization

The yellow-eared toucanet's song is "a short to long series normally of double notes, 'tik-ett'" that is sometimes accompanied by bill snapping. Pairs sometimes sing simultaneously. It also makes long and short rattles that may be either vocal or made by the tongue inside the bill.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the yellow-eared toucanet as being of Least Concern. It has a large range and an estimated population of at least 50,000 mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It appears to be "uncommon to locally fairly common" in the northern part of its range, rare to uncommon and local in Colombia, and is very rare and local in Ecuador.