Scissor-tailed flycatchers can be found in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas in the south; western Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri in the west; far eastern New Mexico in the east; and northeastern Mexico in the north.
They’ve been spotted as far north as southern Canada and as far east as Florida and Georgia on rare occasions. These birds travel from Texas and eastern Mexico to their non-breeding area in southern Mexico and Panama throughout the winter.
Scissor-tailed flycatchers can be found in open shrubby area with scattered trees, savannahs, and grasslands, as well as the fringes of tropical moist and tropical dry forests. They can also be found in cities, farm fields, pastures, parks, and along highways.
Description
The long, scissor-like tail of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, which can exceed nine inches in length, makes them immediately identifiable.
When the bird is flying, it opens and closes its tail like a pair of scissors, and when perching, it folds or closes the “scissors.” The bird’s tail is proportionately longer than any other Oklahoma bird since it is only 11-15 inches long.
The rear and nape of the scissortail’s neck are pearl gray, while the breast is white. The sides and wing linings are pink, and the wings are sooty black with a tinge of scarlet at the shoulders.
Females are usually shorter than males due to their shorter tails. Immature birds look like adults, but their tails are shorter and forked just slightly.
Scissortails tweet like kingbirds when flying, clucking and chattering incessantly. Their call is “cah-kee…cah-key…CAH-KEY.”
Habitat
Scissortails can be found in broad plains studded with trees and along tree-lined country roads in Oklahoma. They can also be found in open area around ranches and small towns, perching on telephone lines, flagpoles, and fences.
The birds often sit for hours along roadside fences, branches, and lonely trees in rural settings. Scissor-tailed flycatchers are Neotropical migratory, meaning they spend the winters in Central and South America and then return to North America to breed and rear their young.
Their narrow breeding territory spans the southern Great Plains states, from New Mexico through Louisiana and Nebraska southward to southern Texas and northern Mexico.
The birds, on the other hand, have traveled as far north as Hudson Bay, east as New Brunswick, and west as Colorado.
The birds spend their winters in Florida’s southern half and the Florida Keys, as well as south Texas, Mexico, and Central America. At altitudes below 5,000 feet, the birds are typical winter visitors to Guatemala.
Food
Scissor-tailed Grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles are among the insects that flycatchers eat. They eat fruit on occasion, especially when they’re on their wintering grounds.
They forage between the ground and 30 feet above it, catching insects from the air or gleaning them from foliage. They return to a perch on a fence, wire, or tree branch between insect-catching flights.
A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher will frequently consume a tiny prey item while flying back to its perch, but it will beat large prey items against the perch before consuming them.
Scissor-tailed Flycatchers occasionally gather insects directly from thinly vegetated ground. They forage for insects or fruit by hopping from branch to branch in live oak, post oak, red mulberry, or hackberry trees, or hovering near trees, on rare instances.
Scissor-tailed Flycatchers will occasionally visit berry bushes such as mulberry or hackberry to complement their insect diet.
Nesting
Nest Placement
The male and female look for a nest site in open prairie, mesquite prairie, parks, gardens, pastures, croplands, roadsides, or saltmarsh borders throughout their region.
They both jump around and test out different areas by pressing themselves against the branches when they identify a prospective nest site in an isolated tree or shrub. They select an open area that is shielded from the wind and typically shaded by vegetation.
Nest Description
The female constructs the nest on her own, with the male often accompanying her. She could finish the nest in a few days or take several weeks.
Plant stems and flowers, oak catkins, cudweed, wool, Spanish moss, peppergrass, tissue, paper, twine, thread, and cotton are used to make a rough frame 5–6 inches across.
She constructs an inner cup out of cudweed flowers, string, cloth, and cotton that is 3 inches across and 2 inches deep, occasionally adding moist soil, caterpillar cocoons, sheep wool, Bermuda grass leaves, cedar bark, chicken feathers, seed silk, cigarette filters, paper, or carpet fluff.
Finally, she weaves dried roots, thistledown, cotton fibers, and wooly cudweed leaves into the nest.
Scissor-tailed Flycatchers Behavior
With its tail curled, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher flies in straight lines with quick wingbeats. It also frequently hovers with its tail splayed or makes sharp mid-air spins.
During spring and fall migration, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers create enormous roosts, and they also gather throughout the winter.
During the breeding season, males in some populations continue to roost in groups, but breeding birds graze alone or in pairs. In the early spring, males arrive ahead of females to establish and defend territories.
Following their mating, both males and females pursue and attack intruders into their area. Trespassing is common, especially early in the morning, so keep a watch out if you notice these birds because you might be treated to an incredible aerial pursuit.
Within a breeding season, pairs are monogamous, although they do not usually reconnect in subsequent years.
Red-tailed Hawks, Swainson’s Hawks, Turkey Vultures, Mourning Doves, Great-tailed Grackles, Common Grackles, Northern Mockingbirds, Western Kingbirds, Loggerhead Shrikes, House Sparrows, American Crows, Blue Jays, and Lark Sparrows are all attacked by Scissor-tailed Flycatchers.
Mating Habits
Scissor-tailed flycatchers are serial monogamous, which means they only establish couples for one breeding season.
From April to August is the breeding season. Males conduct a stunning aerial courtship display with their long tail forks streaming out behind them during this period.
Scissor-tailed flycatchers make cup nests in isolated trees or shrubs, but they can use man-made structures like telephone poles near towns.
Twigs, stems, paper, bark, and feathers are used to construct the nest. Scissor-tailed flycatchers, like other kingbirds, are fierce in guarding their nest.
The female lays 3 to 6 eggs, which she incubates for 13 to 16 days. Altricial chicks are born with reddish bodies and closed eyes, helpless.
The young are fed by both parents until they fledge and are ready to leave the nest, which happens 14-17 days after hatching.
When they are one year old, scissor-tailed flycatchers reach reproductive maturity and are ready to reproduce for the first time.
Habits and Lifestyle
Scissor-tailed flycatchers are active during the day. They catch insects by perching on a perch and then flying out to catch them as they fly (hawking).
They will also collect insects from the ground or from the plants. Scissor-tailed flycatchers are social birds, however they generally feed alone or in pairs during the breeding season.
Scissor-tailed flycatchers congregate in enormous roosts with hundreds of birds after the breeding season. Males leave their nest tree in the evening to join community roosts and return to the nest in the morning throughout the breeding season.
Scissor-tailed flycatchers use chattering and twittering noises to communicate, as well as a harsh “kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee-kee
Facts About Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher can grow to be 8.7 to 14.6 inches long and weigh 1.3 to 2 ounces.
Grey head and back, white throat and belly, dark brown wings with white margins and salmon-pink flanks, lateral sides of the body, and bottom sections of wings characterize the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.
The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is a medium-sized flycatcher with a long, forked tail and a small, black bill. Females and immature birds have substantially longer tails than males.
Acrobatics in the air are made easier by the long tail. While catching insects in the air, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher makes fast twists and spins.
Crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and fruit are among the insects that scissor-tailed flycatchers eat (red mulberry and hackberry). Because of their abilities to control pests, scissor-tailed flycatchers are welcome in fields and gardens.
The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher carries huge insects to fence wires and tree branches, where it beats them against the perch to ensure they are dead and “safe” to consume.
Hawks, grackles, northern mockingbirds, sparrows, crows, and blue jays are natural enemies of scissor-tailed flycatchers.
At the conclusion of the summer, vast groups of scissor-tailed flycatchers congregate in Mexico and Central America to migrate to their wintering sites.
“Zipper,” “snip,” or “pinking” refers to a group of scissor-tailed flycatchers.
The scissor-tailed flycatcher’s breeding season is in the spring. Males engage in “sky dancing.” To attract females, they frequently open and close their tails (which resemble a pair of scissors).
Scissor-tailed flycatchers are monogamous (they only stay together for one season) and only have one or two broods per year.
For the construction of their nest, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers collect branches, flowers, moss, oat catkins, wool, and different artificial materials such as threads, paper, bits of cloth, and cigarette filters. In the shrubs or trees, the female makes a cup-shaped nest. The construction of the nest can take a few days or a few weeks.
After 13 to 23 days, the female lays 3 to 6 eggs, which hatch after 13 to 23 days. Only females participate in egg incubation.
At birth, girls are nude and helpless. At the age of 14 to 17 days, both parents supply food for their chicks, who are ready to leave the nest.
In the wild, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher can live for 10 to 15 years.
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