Common Cicadabirds are the smallest Australian cuckoo-shrikes.
The Common Cicadabird is the only Australian cuckoo-shrike with a
dimorphicplumage, i.e.
males and
females
are different.
Male
Common Cicadabirds are dark-grey throughout, with a black eye stripe
and near-black tail and flight feathers with dark-grey edge lining.
Apart from an off-white throat patch,
female
Common Cicadabirds have a
light-brown front with thin darker-brown barring from the
upper chest to the lower belly. They have dark-brown eye
stripes, lighter brown eyebrows and light-and-dark brown
striated ear coverts. The frons, crown and back, from the
nape of the neck to the tail, are all greyish-brown. The
flight feathers are dark-brown, with lighter brown edge
lining.
The eyes of both sexes have black irises. The thin, slightly
down-curved bill, the legs and feet are all dark-grey.
Juveniles resemble
females,
but are more heavily barred.
Twitcher's tip
Although for a long time considered to be a member of the
genus Coracina,
the Common Cicadabird's
dimorphism
and also the morphology of the
females'plumage are in fact
more similar to those of both members of the
Lalage family, i.e.,
White-winged and
Varied Trillers.
The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and
specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found,
based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to
ebird.org
.
The global distribution of the Cicadabird is available
HERE
.
There are several races of Cicadabirds. Altogether their range
spans across eastern Indonesia, Timor Leste, New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands, extending southwards to Australia.
In Australia two races of Common Cicadabirds are found.
Nominate race
"tenuirostre"
breeds only in Australia. It occurs along the East coast, from South of
Cape Melville, QLD, to about the NSW/VIC border, and along the
eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range. Occasionally they
extend their range farther inland, up to the western slopes of the
Great Dividing Range (including, e.g.,
Warrumbungle NP and
the Pilliga scrub).
Along the (near-)coastal fringe of tropical North Australia, from
Cape Melville, QLD, throughout the northern part of Cape York peninsula,
the Top End of the NT and the Kimberley in WA, endemic race
"melvillensis"
is found.
A male Common Cicadabird, race
"tenuirostre",
was spotted by C. Hayne at Ballina, NSW, in December 2012.
B. Hensen reports spotting Common Cicadabirds, race
"tenuirostre",
at St. Albans, NSW, in December 2012 and again in March 2018.
A Common Cicadabird, race
"tenuirostre",
was heard calling by us at Upper Bullawa Creek,
Mt. Kaputar NP,
in October 2013. We thank B. Hensen for identifying the bird's
call.
A Common Cicadabird was found at the same location again in January 2018.
In December 2013 a pair was observed at Deriah Aboriginal Area.
Several Common Cicadabirds, race
"tenuirostre",
were observed in Leard State Forest, near Maules Creek,
NSW, in November 2014.
E.
Scott reports spotting a Common Cicadabird, race
"tenuirostre", at
Roseberry Creek Valley, near Toonumbar NP, northern NSW, in December 2016.
B. Hensen reports finding a Common Cicadabird, race
"tenuirostre",
at St. Albans, NSW, in February 2014.
M. Eaton spotted a Common Cicadabird, race
"tenuirostre",
at Anstead Reserve, Anstead, QLD, in November 2018, and another at the
same location in December 2019.
Race "melvillensis"
B. Hensen reports spotting a female Common Cicadabird, race
"melvillensis",
in Darwin, NT, in August 2013.
Photos
Race "tenuirostre"
ADULT
MALE
Near-lateral/ventral view of a male Common Cicadabird;
mellow early morning light gives it a brownish hue
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Anstead Reserve, Anstead, QLD, December 2019]
Lateral view of a male Common Cicadabird (photo courtesy of
E.
Scott)
[Roseberry Creek Valley, near Toonumbar NP, northern NSW, December 2016]
Mimicking cicada calls, Common Cicadabirds wait for a response. If they
get one, they will pounce on their prey.
Male Common Cicadabird observed by us calling by mimicking a cicada
(upper left) and then checking for any response; the bird mimicked
both the long-drawn rattle of a cicada and the short burst that can
be heard during take-off
[Deriah Aboriginal Area, NSW, December 2013]
Food, Diet
As their names already suggest, Common Cicadabirds have a preference for
Cicadas, caterpillars and other relatively large insects.
Male Common Cicadabird with its prey, a caterpillar (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[St. Albans, NSW, February 2014]
For comparison,
here a few examples of male cicadas' tymbal clicks that these calls are
mimicking (there are 200 species of cicadas in Australia, with various
sound patterns).
More Common Cicadabird sound recordings are available at
xeno-canto.org
.
These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our
contributors.
The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species
please refer to a field guide.