Voice
Calls are varied, but most are loud, shrill and drawn-out, including 'wheeesp', 'whee-eesp', 'shreep shreeeep', 'piiyo piiyo', 'piiyy piitt', 'pii-hyara', 'piyopiyopiyo', 'hiihii'.
Brown-eared Bulbul (Hypsipetes amaurotis) [XC285871]
by Peter Boesman from Tairo-Ike, Miyakejima, Japan (call)
Brown-eared Bulbul (Hypsipetes amaurotis) [XC155867]
by Frank Lambert from Miyake-jima, lakeside (2), Japan (call)
Subspecies
Several of the listed subspecies seem weakly differentiated, and possibly invalid. Proposed subspecies hensoni (from Hokkaido), kanrasani (Quelpart I) and septentrionalis (southern Sakhalin, non-breeding) considered synonymous with nominate. Subspecies insignis (southern Ryukyus) doubtfully distinct from pryeri and thus merged with it.
The following 15 subspecies are recognised:
amaurotis (Temminck, 1830) - Japan southern from Hokkaido (except southern Kyushu), and southern Korea. Non-breeding south to eastern China and Ryukyu Is.
matchiae (Momiyama, 1923) - Southern Japan (southern Kyushu).