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Black-eared Cuckoos are relatively small cuckoos. The back, from the crown downwards, is brownish-grey, while the front (throat, chest and belly) is creamy. The vent and undertail coverts are barred creamy-white. Black-eared Cuckoos have a prominent, wide black eye stripe between narrow white stripes. The wings are brownish-grey, like the back, while the undertail is barred grey-and-white. Black-eared Cuckoos have dark irises, a dark-grey bill and grey legs and feet.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Black-eared Cuckoo is available HERE .

Apart from Australia, Black-eared Cuckoos are found only in eastern Indonesia and southern New Guinea.

NB: Reports on ebird of birds submitted by birdwatchers from the Australian Outback tend to be clustered along roads and public areas such as camp grounds; in such cases their distribution is not a good representation of the overall distribution of the species.

Black-eared Cuckoos migrate to Australia from the North via Cape York peninsula. They breed in the inland of the southern half of the Australian continent, in three major areas: Basically all of inland NSW and southern QLD; most of the western half and the south-eastern corner of SA; south-western WA (but not the tip of the continent). From there they migrate North outside the breeding season, populating the Kimberley, all of the tropical North of the continent and all of the NT and QLD (except the QLD South coast). Except for the South coast of SA and Cape York peninsula, they are not found anywhere on the South or East coast of Australia.

Black-eared Cuckoos are usually found in relatively open country, with shrubs, and widely spaced trees and also in open woodland, mostly in the semi-arid interior. They can also be found in farmland with scattered trees.

A Black-eared Cuckoo was a regular summertime visitor at the farm where we lived in 2003-2006, 20 km South of Narrabri, NSW.

Black-eared Cuckoos were heard and seen by us again at Eulah Creek, 20 km East of Narrabri, NSW. in August/September 2010 and again the following year in mid-August 2011. Since then they are found by us around Narrabri semi-regularly. A significant number of Black-eared Cuckoos overwintered in the Narrabri region in 2020.

H. Mouritsen spotted a Black-eared Cuckoo near Darwin, NT, in October 2015.

Both M. Eaton and ourselves found Black-eared Cuckoos at the Bowra Wildlife Sanctuary, near Cunnamulla, QLD, in June 2019. That season the first Black-eared Cuckoo was heard calling near Narrabri, NSW, in the second week of July.

P. Brown reports first finding a Black-eared Cuckoo at Rapid Creek, Darwin, NT, in November 2021.