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

They are black from their chin to their belly with a yellow patch on the flank, chestnut thighs, and red undertail coverts.

[5] The yellow-eared toucanet is found from northeastern Honduras south through Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and western Colombia into extreme northwestern Ecuador.

[5] 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.

[5] The yellow-eared toucanet usually forages in pairs or small groups, and usually from the forest's mid level to the canopy.

[5] 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.

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.