The Golden-eared Tanager is a small tanager about 11.5 cm long. In Bolivia it is recorded in humid cloud forest of the lower Yungas and is seen alone or in pairs.
The belly and undertail coverts are chestnut. Yellow-orange ear coverts are bordered by a black malar stripe.
It uses humid lower-Yungas cloud forest, moving through the canopy and subcanopy alone or in pairs. It often joins mixed flocks, slowly gleaning small arthropods from bark and moss; it also eats fruit.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.