The brown-eared bulbul (Hypsipetes amaurotis) is a medium-sized passerine, about 28 cm long, with grayish-brown plumage and distinctive brown ear-coverts, belonging to the family Pycnonotidae. It ranges across the Russian Far East, northeastern China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Taiwan, and south to the northern Philippines. In autumn and winter, when insect activity is low, it feeds on fruit, seeds, and the nectar of camellia (Camellia) flowers, becoming dusted with pollen in the process and acting as a documented winter pollinator. Gardeners in Japan and Korea growing Camellia japonica may attract this bird, which is one of the few pollinators active during the plant's winter bloom period.

Plants this species pollinates · 1

Nectar plants · 1

Resident and migratory across East Asia: Japan (Hokkaido to Kyushu and outlying islands), the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, northeastern China, the Russian Far East including Sakhalin, and south to the Babuyan and Batanes island chains of the northern Philippines. Twelve subspecies are recognised. The species has expanded its winter range northward in recent decades.