These birds earn their "eared" name from the stiff white ear coverts behind the eyes, which look like a moustache. There are four species that belong to the genus Crossoptilon – the white eared, Tibetan eared, Brown eared, and blue eared. First identified by British ethnologist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1838, the word 'Crossoptilon' is derived from a Greek word, 'krossoi',meaning 'fringe' and 'ptilon', meaning 'feather'.
