Brown Violetear

How to find it

Look at forest edges and clearings, where it drops to shrub height to feed. Flowering trees and hummingbird feeders in the foothills are good places to watch. In the breeding season, listen along edges for the scattered singing groups of males, which is a good way to locate them. A viewing balcony such as the one at Soda Cinchona lets you watch hummingbirds from very close, because they ignore the people at the tables. A private garden in Sarapiquí with feeders and a covered dining area has also produced it on a birding trip.

How to recognise it

Look for a fairly large, dull hummingbird. It is mostly grayish brown with a green gloss on the back.

The face carries a violet ear patch and a pale cheek stripe, like the one on a hermit hummingbird. The bill is short and dark, and the tail is broad. The throat has a shiny green patch with blue along its lower edge. The tail is bronze green with a pale tip over a dark band. Across its range it also shows a rufous rump and grayer underparts, and the feet are dark.

Females look like males but have a smaller throat patch. Range-wide it is about 11.5 cm long and weighs about 6.5 g. Young birds have wide cinnamon edges on the upperpart feathers and show little or no violet on the face.

What it sounds like

Recording: John G. Phillips, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It feeds mostly on small, short flowers of trees and epiphytes, and it often catches flying insects in clearings for protein. It is rarely territorial, yet it is very aggressive around other hummingbirds. It dominates smaller hummingbirds at flowers and can keep others away from feeders. Rather than defending one patch, it uses feeding routes that link flowering plants. When not breeding, it may move considerable distances into adjacent lowlands.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it mostly uses the forest canopy and tall second growth, and it comes down to shrub level at forest edges and clearings. On the Caribbean side it lives at roughly 400 to 1100 m, and on the Pacific side it reaches about 1600 m. It occurs in all the main mountain ranges and in the higher parts of the Osa Peninsula. Range-wide it prefers humid evergreen forest, especially semi-open second growth, edges, shrubby patches and shade coffee plantations.

When to see it

A Costa Rican source says it breeds from November to April or May, and males sing in scattered groups in the lower canopy along forest edges at that time.

Similar birds

Other violetears in Costa Rica are mostly green, including the Lesser Violetear and the rare Mexican Violetear. The Brown Violetear stands out for its dull brown plumage and its short, straight bill.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans use the AOCR name Colibrí Orejivioláceo Pardo, and one Costa Rican bird site also lists the plain nicknames 'colibrí' and 'gorrión'. Colombia says 'chillón pardo', Honduras 'orejimorada café' and Ecuador 'orejivioleta parda'.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and it is an uncommon, local bird in Costa Rica.

Photography tips

Flowering trees and foothill feeders are the best bet, since it drops to shrub height at forest edges and clearings to feed. Balcony feeders let you shoot from close range.