Common Cicadabird

About the Common Cicadabird

The Sahul cicadabird (Edolisoma tenuirostre), previously known as the common cicadabird or slender-billed cicadabird, is a species of passerine bird in the family Campephagidae. It is found in Australia, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. Its natural habitats are temperate forest and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. The species is placed in the reinstated genus Edolisoma by most authors. The common cicadabird was described as a "great speciator" by Mayr & Diamond (2001); and Pedersen et al. (2018) described how this species rapidly colonized and diversified across the Indo-Pacific island region and Australia in the Pleistocene.

Six subspecies are recognised: E. t. nehrkorni Salvadori, 1890 – Waigeo (Raja Ampat Islands, northwest of New Guinea; known from one specimen) E. t. aruense Sharpe, 1878 – Aru Islands (southwest of New Guinea) and southwest, central south New Guinea

E. t. muellerii Salvadori, 1876 – Kofiau and Misool (Raja Ampat Islands, northwest of New Guinea), New Guinea (except south), D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago (east of southeast New Guinea), Long (west of New Britain) and Sakar (north of Umboi Island, west of New Britain; southwest... Wikipedia →