Are hazel eyes brown eyes?

[Septentrion]

yes. hazel eyes are brown eyes. lighter brown eyes. but really light yellowish hazel can look lighter and more translucent than darker blue eyes and can look lighter in black and white photos than such blue ones. my case.

No they are not.

[Septentrion]

Are they in the same category as black and brown eyes?

Depending on definitions, hazel may be considered light or mixed. As a matter of fact, what makes an eye appear hazel, blue or green is the result of the Tyndall scattering of light in the stroma.

[Visage pâle]

Charlize Theron has hazel eyes:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...954e1c67fe.jpg

Hazel is darker than this.

[Alenka]

The way I imagine it, hazel eyes usually have some combination of brown and green/grey or even blue. Proportions differ, with some hazel eyes being half of each, and others leaning in either direction.

[CommonSense]

Hazel is darker than this.

True. Not a spec of brown in there, they're blue-green: