All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Black-eared Hemispingus
Black-eared Hemispingus | Sphenopsis melanotis
Zwartoorsfenops | Hemispingo orejinegro | Sanhaço-de-orelha-preta
The Black-eared Hemispingus is a small tanager of the understory of montane forest on the eastern slope of the Andes, from Colombia to Bolivia. A grey crown, a black ear patch and a cinnamon throat and breast characterize it. The forms differ clearly from north to south in the amount of white and black on the head; the western forms are now treated as separate species.
Voice
The song is a fast, rattling twitter, usually given as a duet by a pair. The call is a high tsit. Birds from southern Peru and Bolivia sound somewhat different from northern birds.
Recording: Dries Van de Loock — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm, with a thin, pointed, dark bill. Crown and nape grey, the ear-coverts and lores black. In the north the supercilium is short and faint; southern birds, especially in southern Peru and Bolivia, have a long white supercilium, a broader black mask and a black chin. Upperparts, wings and tail olive-green. Throat and breast cinnamon to rufous-brown, belly paler buff. Sexes alike. Young birds are duller, with less contrast on the head.
Confusion species
Oleaginous Hemispingus Sphenopsis frontalis is uniformly olive, without a grey crown or black ear patch. Western Hemispingus Sphenopsis ochracea on the western slope of Colombia and Ecuador is duller, with hardly any mask and ochraceous underparts. Piura Hemispingus Sphenopsis piurae on the western slope of southern Ecuador and northwestern Peru resembles southern Black-eared Hemispingus but does not occur on the eastern slope. Black-capped Hemispingus Kleinothraupis atropileus is larger, with a black crown and ochraceous-yellow underparts.
Habitat
Understory of humid montane forest and cloud forest, often with Chusquea bamboo, also forest edges and older secondary forest, roughly between 1600 and 3000 m. It forages in pairs low in the undergrowth for insects, usually in mixed flocks. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Andes. In Ecuador on the eastern slope of the Andes. In Peru on the eastern slope from north to south, with an isolated form on the western slope of central Peru. In Bolivia on the eastern slope of the Andes in La Paz and Cochabamba. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In cloud forest with a bamboo understory, follow mixed flocks low along forest edges and trails; a pair often gives its rattling duet before showing itself.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is fairly common in most of its range. Clearing of montane forest locally reduces its habitat.
Scientific name
Sphenopsis melanotis | (Sclater, 1855)
Sclater described the species in 1855 as Chlorospingus melanotis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Sphenopsis was introduced in 1862 by Sclater. The genus name combines Greek sphēn, 'wedge', and opsis, 'appearance'. The species name comes from Greek melas, 'zwart', en ous, 'oor', for the black ear patch. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia.