Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
There is currently no conservation effort focused on this bird. Like other avian species, as long as it has adequate habitat - grasslands, open area, and agricultural lands - there is a chance it can survive with humans.
US Migratory Bird Act: protected
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Their diet can consist largely of agricultural pests and therefore they are helpers in keeping the ecosystems around crops in better order. The long tail feathers have been used make peyote fans. Otherwise, the human utility of the bird is limited to the beauty of the bird witnessed in their skydances.
(Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, no date)
Positive Impacts: controls pest population
Scissor-tailed flycatchers forage at heights ranging from the ground to 10 meters. They capture their prey by aerial hawking or gleaning during prey-specific flight forays. (Regosin, 1998)
They eat mostly grasshoppers and beetles but have been known to eat bees, wasps, spiders, crickets, some fruits and berries as well. (Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, no date)
Animal Foods: insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods
Plant Foods: fruit
Primary Diet: carnivore (Insectivore )
Breeds in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and southern Nebraska, and occasionally eastern to western Louisiana and southwestern Missouri; migrates to and winters in Central America. The birds' wintering grounds can be anywhere within south Mexico through central Costa Rica and rarely into Panama as well as the southern tip of Florida.
(Peterson, 1963; Rand, 1971; Regosin, 1998)
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
BREEDING HABITAT:
Breeds mainly in savannas that contain a few trees, shrubs and or brushes. But may also be found in agricultural and urban areas as well as pastures in their breeding time.
SPRING & FALL MIGRATION:
Sits on fence posts or bushes in open country of Texas and Oklahoma; prefers open grassland and areas with scattered trees.
WINTER MIGRATION:
Present in savannas, pastures, agricultural lands, urban areas and at the periphery of tropical forests.
(Regosin, 1998; Rand, 1971)
Range elevation: 1000 to 2300 m.
Average elevation: 1500 m.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Other Habitat Features: urban ; suburban ; agricultural
Scissor-tailed flycatchers are slender, pale gray and black, with contrasting white tails and pink flanks; red patches are present just under the wings at the shoulders. The common name refers to the long rectrices that have a gap between them giving the appearance of scissors. Females are usually shorter than males and have shorter tails.
(Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, no date; Peterson, 1963; Rand, 1971)
Range mass: 36 to 43 g.
Range length: 159 to 225 mm.
Range wingspan: 111 to 125 mm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
These birds are socially monogamous. (Regosin, 1998)
Mating System: monogamous
As soon as birds arrive back on their breeding grounds in the United States, breeding pairs are formed. The female primarily builds the nest but the male may help in shaping the nest with his bill and or feet. There can be four to five eggs per clutch in a nest and up to two broods are produced per season. Nests are usually built in small trees or shrubs. The eggs are incubated for 12-14 days and the hatchlings require another 14 days before they can leave the nest. (Rand, 1971; Sutton, 1977)
Breeding season: April to August
Range eggs per season: 3 to 6.
Average time to hatching: 14 days.
Average fledging age: 14 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 1 years.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 1 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization (External ); oviparous
The male assists in feeding the young. The young are altricial and are born naked except for some white down. (Regosin, 1998)
Parental Investment: altricial ; male parental care ; female parental care
An extremely large (11-15 inches) flycatcher, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is most easily identified by its gray head and back, pale breast, dark wings, and exceptionally long “swallow-tailed” tail feathers comprising well over half of its body length. Adult birds are almost unmistakable in this species’ breeding range, although they may be confused with adult Fork-tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus savanna), which are darker on the head and face, that occur in this species’ tropical winter range and as rare vagrants further north. Male and female Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are similar to one another in all seasons. The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher breeds in portion of the southern Great Plains stretching from Nebraska and Missouri south to Texas and northern Mexico. In winter, this species migrates south to southern Mexico, Central America, and extreme southern Florida. During migration, stray individuals occasionally appear far from this species’ breeding range, some turning up as far north as southern Canada. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers breed in a variety of open habitats, including grasslands, prairies, and fields, utilizing similar habitats in winter as in summer. In particular, these birds require sections of habitat containing isolated low trees, bushes, or fence posts suitable for perching or nesting. Like most of their relatives, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers primarily eat small flying insects. In appropriate habitat, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are most easily seen scanning the grass or brush from a prominent perch. These birds hunt by flying out from perches to capture prey in the air, displaying their characteristic tail feathers as they do so. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are primarily active during the day.
An extremely large (11-15 inches) flycatcher, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is most easily identified by its gray head and back, pale breast, dark wings, and exceptionally long “swallow-tailed” tail feathers comprising well over half of its body length. Adult birds are almost unmistakable in this species’ breeding range, although they may be confused with adult Fork-tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus savanna), which are darker on the head and face, that occur in this species’ tropical winter range and as rare vagrants further north. Male and female Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are similar to one another in all seasons. The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher breeds in portion of the southern Great Plains stretching from Nebraska and Missouri south to Texas and northern Mexico. In winter, this species migrates south to southern Mexico, Central America, and extreme southern Florida. During migration, stray individuals occasionally appear far from this species’ breeding range, some turning up as far north as southern Canada. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers breed in a variety of open habitats, including grasslands, prairies, and fields, utilizing similar habitats in winter as in summer. In particular, these birds require sections of habitat containing isolated low trees, bushes, or fence posts suitable for perching or nesting. Like most of their relatives, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers primarily eat small flying insects. In appropriate habitat, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are most easily seen scanning the grass or brush from a prominent perch. These birds hunt by flying out from perches to capture prey in the air, displaying their characteristic tail feathers as they do so. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are primarily active during the day.
The scissor-tailed flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus), also known as the Texas bird-of-paradise and swallow-tailed flycatcher, is a long-tailed insectivorous bird of the genus Tyrannus, whose members are collectively referred to as kingbirds. It is found in North and Central America.
The scissor-tailed flycatcher was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the flycatchers in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa forficata.[2][3] The specific epithet is from Latin forfex, forficis meaning "a pair of scissors".[4] Gmelin based his description on "Le moucherolle à queue fourchue du Mexique" (French: "the Mexican swallow-tailed flycatcher") that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon from a specimen from Mexico and illustrated with a hand-coloured engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet.[5][6] The scissor-tailed flycatcher is now one of 13 species placed in the kingbird genus Tyrannus that was introduced in 1799 by Bernard Germain de Lacépède.[7] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[7]
Within the genus Tyrannus, the scissor-tailed flycatcher is most closely related to the western kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis).[8] In eastern Arkansas and western Tennessee, there is a hybrid breeding zone where the scissor-tailed flycatcher and the western kingbird are sympatric and possibly compete for the same niche.[9] Both these species have simultaneously expanded their breeding ranges eastward over the past 50 years.
Adult birds have pale gray heads and upper parts, light underparts, salmon-pink flanks and undertail coverts, and dark gray wings. Axillars and patch on underwing coverts are red.[10] Their extremely long, forked tails, which are black on top and white on the underside, are characteristic and unmistakable. At maturity, the male may be up to 15 in (38 cm) in length, while the female's tail is up to 30% shorter. The wingspan is 15 cm (5.9 in) and the weight is up to 43 g (1.5 oz).[11] Immature birds are duller in color and have shorter tails. A lot of these birds have been reported to be more than 40 cm (16 in).
They build a cup nest in isolated trees or shrubs, sometimes using artificial sites such as telephone poles near towns. The male performs a spectacular aerial display during courtship with his long tail forks streaming out behind him. Both parents feed the young. Like other kingbirds, they are very aggressive in defending their nest. Clutches contain three to six eggs.
In the summer, scissor-tailed flycatchers feed mainly on insects (grasshoppers, robber-flies, and dragonflies), which they may catch by waiting on a perch and then flying out to catch them in flight (hawking). For additional food in the winter they will also eat some berries.
Their breeding habitat is open shrubby country with scattered trees in the south-central states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, western portions of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri west to far eastern New Mexico and northeastern Mexico. Reported sightings record occasional stray visitors as far north as southern Canada and Upstate New York, as far east as Florida and Georgia, and in the West Indies. They migrate through Texas and eastern Mexico to their winter non-breeding range, from southern Mexico to Panama. Pre-migratory roosts and flocks flying south may contain as many as 1000 birds.[12]
The scissor-tailed flycatcher is the state bird of Oklahoma, and is displayed in flight with tail feathers spread on the reverse of the Oklahoma Commemorative Quarter.
Professional soccer team FC Tulsa features a scissor-tailed flycatcher on their crest. The scissor-tailed flycatcher is also displayed in the background of the current license plate.
Scissor-tailed fly catcher at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
At the National Aviary
At the National Aviary
Near Tampico, Mexico
The scissor-tailed flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus), also known as the Texas bird-of-paradise and swallow-tailed flycatcher, is a long-tailed insectivorous bird of the genus Tyrannus, whose members are collectively referred to as kingbirds. It is found in North and Central America.
