General

Common Cicadabird: Medium, slender, cuckoo-like, slate-gray bird, darker on face, black edging to feathers in wings, and black tip on upper tail. White spots on tips of undertail feathers. Fairly long wings. Black, medium bill. Fairly long tail. Short, blue-gray legs and feet. Feeds on a variety of insects, larvae, seeds, and fruits. Forages by gleaning insects and fruit from foliage, and flying out to snatch food items from leaves.

Breeding and Nesting

Common Cicadabird: One or two white-green or white-blue eggs with black-brown blotches are laid in a small cup nest constructed with twigs, leaves, strips of bark, plant stems, and spiderwebs. Nest is lined with soft materials and built on a horizontal branch high above the ground. The eggs are mostly incubated by the female for about two weeks.

Foraging and Feeding

Common Cicadabird: Feeds on a variety of insects, larvae, seeds, and fruits. Forages by gleaning insects and fruit from foliage with rather slow, deliberate actions. It also waits on a perch and looks around until an insect or fruit is spotted and then flies out to snatch the food items from leaves or a branch.

Vocalization

Palau Cicadabird: Generally quiet. Song is a collection of upslurred and downslurred whistles, harsh notes, warbles, and chirps. Most common calll is a whistled "tuweep".

Similar Species

Micronesian Starling is glossy black overall with yellow eyes. Morningbird is smaller and brown overall.