Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

A member of the Tyrannus family, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is a long-tailed kingbird. As elegant residents of the southern United States, you can see them along roads and in small towns. Beloved by bird watchers across the South it has been named the state bird of Oklahoma, the Texas Bird of Paradise, and due to its long tail, it’s also known as the Swallow-tailed Flycatcher.

About Scissor-tailed Flycatchers

Once named Muscivora forficate meaning “Musca” meaning to fly,”vorare” meaning to devour, and “forficate” meaning scissor. This name was changed to “Tyrannus” or Tyrant due to the territorial aggression it displays during its breeding season often fending off birds larger than its size.

It is natural that birdwatchers want to know all they can about this Kingbird species. So, why don’t we find out more today? We will learn about: 

● Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Size, Eating behavior, Habitat
● Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Range and Migration, Nesting

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Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Color Pattern 

Male adult Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are primarily shades of pale grey with black along the wings with alternating grey feathers. Their tails serve as a contrast with a white tail with black along the inner edges of the “scissor”. The underside of their body is white with salmon color flanks that extend along the underbelly to the underwing.

Female Adult Scissor-tailed Flycatchers look very similar to the males in terms of their plumage. The only difference being them is the shades present on them are slightly duller.

Juvenile Scissor-tailed Flycatchers also look similar to the adults. They often have grey pale heads with similar colored wings and tails. Their major difference being the salmon along the flanks, underwing, and underbelly is replaced by a pale yellow.

Description and Identification

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are common in the southern United States from May to November. One may catch a glimpse of them flying around at a whopping 65 miles per hour in their hunt. Visible in many open spaces such as farms and golf courses. They love to inhabit areas with tall objects like trees or artificial structures like towers if they are in isolation from other tall objects due to their territorial nature.

An easy method to identify the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is by their scissor-like tail that makes a folding motion when they take sharp turns. One must be careful not to confuse it with the Fork-tailed Flycatcher that it shares its wintering grounds with. An easy method to differentiate is the lack of a salmon color on the underbelly and underwings.

One can also identify the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher by its call. The series of high-pitched sharp tones that get more rapid will help you decipher them. One may also attempt to explore their habitat during the breeding season and hear the aggressive bill claps that are often followed by the chasing of an unwanted intruder by the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Song

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher song is a series of cues. It is a series of high pitched sharp tones that increase in pitch and frequency as the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher keeps singing. Often sounding less like a bird call and more like a loud squeak. They sing while slightly hidden, mostly visible of tree branches or atop telephone and electricity wires.

They have other calls that are a series of rattles and chirrs that they use to communicate. While displaying aggression they depend on the clapping sound of their bills and the high-pitched sounds that come from the rapid flapping of their wings. The aggression is displayed by both male and female Scissor-tailed Flycatchers.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Size

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are slender and long Kingbirds, with long and forked tails. The tail is smaller on adult female birds and juveniles of both sexes as they develop the scissor-like tail.

The length of the bird from tip to tip is 8.7-14.6 inches with half the length being their long tails. Adult females have tails about 30% smaller than their male counterparts. They weigh around 1.3-2.0 ounces, with an average wingspan of 5.9 inches.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Behavior

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers spend much of their time grooming and perch on wires and fences preening, scratching, stretching, and sunbathing their time away. They spend the rest of their time hunting for prey, flying slightly above the ground level searching for prey, or even foraging blueberries and mulberries if unable to hunt.

They are extremely territorial birds and often indulge in fights bit birds much larger in size to defend their territory, unusually this territorial bird flocks with up to a thousand of its kind when migrating to and from its wintering ground.

In May the male Scissor-tailed Flycatchers arrive from their wintering grounds and begin to chose and defend their territory from their fellow family members, but also from birds of bigger and larger species. While Scissor-tailed Flycatchers often sing while flying, they don’t sing while perched unless attempting to display dominance over their fellow male Flycatchers or to attract the attention of a female.

Upon the arrival of the females, the male Scissor-tailed Flycatchers begin to display by fluttering their wings and showing their salmon underwings. The female does not display in return and only watches. If uninterested the female will leave upon which the displaying males will follow her, or even chase her and continue displaying. Upon selection of a suitable mate, the female and male secure their territory by snapping bills, flapping their wings, or even chasing and attacking the intruder. After which the female will begin to build the nest and they will copulate in the area around the nest.

Upon the initiation of the incubation period the male Scissor-tailed Flycatcher will defend the territory from avian predators and fellow birds, upon the hatching he will join the female Scissor-tailed Flycatchers in feeding the hatchlings for the two weeks until they fledge. Upon the fledgling leaving the nests, and sometimes even before the female will begin the 2nd nesting of the season. The mating season ends in August after which the birds begin to leave for their wintering grounds in Central America.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Diet

As the name suggests, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers love insects, primarily hunting beetles and grasshoppers as their prey. They can consume most insects though, from bees, wasps, caterpillars, spiders, moths and as the name suggests, flies. On some rare occasions, they include berries and fruits in their diets.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Habitat

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers like to live in large open spaces which can vary from fields, pastures, towns, and golf courses, basically areas with spread out trees and shrubs. Often the side of the road can be appropriate habitat for the Flycatchers as the towers serve as artificial sites of nesting. This leads them to the south-central United States and some parts of Mexico during the spring and summer. For their stay during the winter, they search for similar areas with spread out trees and shrubs, often perching in villages, towns, agricultural lands and the edges of tropical forests in the humid Savannahs in southern and central America.

Range and Migration

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers begin to come in from their wintering grounds around May to settle in the southern United States. They come in flocks of thousands and begin to settle and defend their chosen territories for their breeding season. In October and sometimes even as late as November the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers begin to leave for their wintering grounds in Central America again in flocks of thousands. Many stray often winter along the coast of Florida.

Many Kingbirds often like to wander, like the Fork-tailed Flycatcher the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher also happen to wander far from their usual grounds. Even though it is most common to find them in the Southern United States, they have been spotted further north all the way to Nova Scotia.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Lifecycle

Upon breeding season, the Female Scissor-tailed Flycatcher lays between 3-6 eggs in a clutch. With the birds raising up to 2 broods in a year. The eggs are off-white with blotched brown and grey. Upon laying the entire clutch, the female begins to incubate the eggs for about two weeks after which the hatchlings emerge. The hatchlings are born naked, occasionally with a white underside.

They are fed by both male and female parents. After another two weeks, the hatchlings begin to fledge and leave the nest.

The juvenile Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are sexually mature at the age of one year. Upon their return to their breeding grounds the next year, they too will find mates. The lifespan of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is around 10-15 years.

Nesting

Together, the male and female Scissor-tailed Flycatchers find a suitable nesting site. They roam the territory that they claimed, usually in the open prairies, parks, croplands, salt marsh edges, and gardens, in search of an isolated tree or shrub. Once identifying a potential site, they both start to test the site by pressing themselves against branches and hopping around to ensure the strength of the site.

The female builds the nest mostly herself, with some minor assistance in shaping by the male. The female collects materials like twigs and blades of grass but has been more reliant on manmade material, recently being found to have more than 30 percent of their nests made with materials like tissue, strings, thread, and paper.

Female Scissor-tailed Flycatchers first build an outer cup comprising of the rougher materials like twigs about 5-6inch across, then an inner layer of the finer materials weaving them together to create a cup about 3 inches across and 2 inches deep. Sometimes adding wet soil, caterpillar cocoons, and cigarette filters. The final inner lining is a very tight weave of dried roots, cotton fiber, and carpet fuzz.

Anatomy of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are small slender birds that can often seem deceptively large due to the length of their tail. Their bills are stout and have slight curvature at the ends. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher’s heads are domed and they have small necks.

Their identifying feature is their long forked tails that can fold inward for when the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers want to take sharp turns, often leading to a scissor-like movement from the tails. These tails comprise most of the bird’s length from tip to tip and without the additional length, they would be smaller than the American Robins.

Final Thoughts

Due to their highly adaptive behavior and willingness to live alongside human beings, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher has managed to not just survive but thrive through the changes that human beings have made in their environment. From the abundance of man-made material into its nest to its chosen grounds of towns and roadsides for flocking and breeding, their ingenious use of towers to mimic their own preferred habitat has opened a lot of possible nesting site to its use. 

Often considered a boon to humans due to their love for insects that are known to harm humans and our agricultural pursuits, people have used these bird’s return from the wintering grounds to herald the return of warm weather to their areas.

Often considered the David in the fight against attacking birds like Red-tailed Hawks, Swainson’s Hawks, Turkey Vultures, Mourning Doves, Great-tailed Grackles, Common Grackles, Northern Mockingbirds, Western Kingbirds, Loggerhead Shrikes, and American Crows. Many of which not only outside it but few which even prey on it throughout the year. The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher manages to earn its name as a Kingbird, but also its scientific name as the “Tyrannus forficate” meaning the Tyrant Scissor.

Ornithology

Bird Watching Academy & Camp Subscription Boxes

At the Bird Watching Academy & Camp we help kids, youth, and adults get excited and involved in bird watching. We have several monthly subscription boxes that you can subscribe to. Our monthly subscription boxes help kids, youth, and adults learn about birds, bird watching, and bird conservation.

Bird Watching Binoculars for Identifying Scissor-tailed Flycatchers

The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

 Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Iron On Patches

Kids, Youth, and Adults love to collect our Bird Watching Academy & Camp iron on patches. Our bird watching patches help you keep track of the birds you have seen an identified. You can also display the patches on our Bird Watching Academy & Camp banners.

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is a great iron-on patch to start your collection with. The patches are durable and can be sewn on or ironed on to just about anything.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Stickers

Stickers are a great way for you to display your love for bird watching and the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. We sell a monthly subscription sticker pack. The sticker packs have 12 bird stickers. These sticker packs will help your kids learn new birds every month.

Bird Feeders For Scissor-tailed Flycatchers

There are many types of bird feeders. Here are our favorite bird feeders for your backyard. We use all of these bird feeders currently. Kids will have a great time watching birds eat at these bird feeders. Using this collection of bird feeders will provide a wide variety and many types of birds.

Best Bird Houses For Scissor-tailed Flycatchers

There are many types of bird houses. Building a bird house is always fun but can be frustrating. Getting a bird house for kids to watch birds grow is always fun. If you spend a little extra money on bird houses, it will be well worth every penny and they’ll look great.