Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous on coral reefs and perform many important ecosystem functions. Benthic cyanobacterial mats (BCMs) have become increasingly abundant on degraded reefs. Mat-forming benthic cyanobacteria have frequently been considered unpalatable to reef fishes. Regardless, recent studies have documented substantial grazing of BCMs by reef fishes, including parrotfishes. Here, we observed foraging in five Caribbean parrotfishes on the fringing coral reefs of Bonaire, Netherlands, to investigate BCM consumption relative to other benthic substrates. Three of our study species preferentially targeted conspicuous BCMs (i.e., macroscopic, cohesive colonies taxonomically composed primarily of Cyanobacteria and Proteobacteria), often taking several consecutive bites on them. Additionally, a high proportion of bites by all species targeted substrates characterized by filamentous turfs and crustose coralline algae. These substrates also contain diverse communities of epilithic and endolithic cyanobacteria and microalgae. Our work is, therefore, consistent with and provides direct evidence supporting the recently proposed trophic categorization of parrotfishes as microphages. Contrasting observations of reef fishes avoiding substrates dominated by BCMs on other reefs suggests variation in the palatability of BCMs to grazing reef fishes, or species-specific differences in preference for these potentially nutritional trophic resources.