Adults live in the cloaca of various birds. Eggs already contain a miracidium when they pass in the feces of the bird. These eggs can resist environmental conditions if deposited on land. They do not hatch until eaten bay a suitable terrestrial snail. Once in the gut of the snail, the egg hatches and releases the miracidium, which immediately penetrates the gut and enters the tissues of the snail. A mother sporocyst develops, which produces many daughter sporocysts. When the daughter sporocysts have produced cercariae, the sporocysts extend branches into the tentacles of the snail, and the cercariae transform into metacercariae. These sporocyst branches have colored bands and also pulsate. They are quite large, and the pulsating colored tentacles of the infected snails attract predation by birds. The metacercariae are ingested by the bird and develop into adults.