Sahul Cicadabird - BirdForum Opus

Alternative names: Slender-billed Cicadabird; Cicadabird

Photo by Tom Tarrant
Samsonvale, South East Queensland, Australia, November 2003

Edolisoma tenuirostre

Identification

26cm
Male

Slate grey
Blackish grey-edged wings

Female
Photo by Tom Tarrant
Samsonvale, South East Queensland, Australia, December 2002

Female

Mid-brown back
Wings edged with sandy tan
Sandy tan below
Grey barred belly

Distribution

Australasia: Found in Australia, New Guinea and some islands around those.

Taxonomy

Like most (all?) Cicadabirds, this species at one time was a part of Common Cicadabird.

Formerly placed in the genus Coracina.

Subspecies

Juvenile male
Photo by kerriebr
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, February 2013

Clements recognizes these subspecies[1]:

E. t. muellerii: Kofiau and Misool Islands, [New Guinea]] and D'Entrecasteaux Archaepelago
E. t. nehrkorni: Waigeo Island (New Guinea)
E. t. aruense: Aru Islands and Trans-Fly lowlands of southern New Guinea
E. t. tagulanum: Louisiade Archipelago (Tagula and Misima)
E. t. melvillense: Northern Australia (Arnhem Land, Northern Territory to Cape York Peninsula)
E. t. tenuirostre: Eastern Australia (north-eastern Queensland to south-eastern Victoria)

Habitat

Temperate forests and moist lowland forests. Eucalypt woodland.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes insects, larvae, beetles, crickets, stick insects, fruit and seeds.

Breeding

The shallow nest is built from twigs, plant stems, leaves and bark, woven with spiderwebs.

References

Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2024. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2024. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2024. IOC World Bird List (v 15.1). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.15.1. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
Dickinson, EC, ed. 2003. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd ed., with updates to December 2007 (Corrigenda 7). Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691117010
Birds of Lamington National Park

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Sahul Cicadabird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 14 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Sahul_Cicadabird

External Links

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