photos by Chuck Lorenz
With feathers a palette of muted salmon beneath pearly grays and whites, and its tail a pair of delicate, elongated scissors, no wonder people call it “the Texas bird of paradise”. And now this lovely bird, after its winter sojourn in Mexico or Central America, is returning to breed in Texas and elsewhere in North America.
Thinking it a permanent resident, I was surprised to learn the scissor-tailed flycatcher—which arrives here in late February or early March, staying through late November or later—spends its winters elsewhere. Birds employ their own schedules, though. This year, I saw the flycatchers assembled on powerlines in December—preparing to migrate, I presume.
An avian Grand Central Station, the Rio Grande Valley offers migrating birds a constant supply of insects, rodents, seeds and fruits. Their perpetual comings and goings are dizzying and delightful. During spring and autumn migrations, warblers, buntings, and other beauties, as well as non-resident European starlings and red-winged blackbirds, stop off to rest and refuel. Others, like white pelicans and several species of hawks and ducks—as well as vultures and starlings, which supplement resident flocks—winter here. Some, like groove-billed anis and scissor-tailed flycatchers, arrive in early springtime to breed and rear their young.
In the family Tyrannidae, the scissor-tailed flycatcher (Tijeras forficatus) is among the tyrant flycatchers—the largest avian family, most of whom live in North and/or South America. All genus members are kingbirds except for it and the fork-tailed flycatcher. Mexicans call this bird tijereta rosada or Tirano tijereta, both names denoting “scissors”. These flycatchers favor open savannas, fields and shrubland, though they thrive in some urban areas with perches that allow broad visibility.
The upper parts of a scissor-tailed flycatcher are grayish, with its sides and underparts white and salmon. As it flies, deep red patches, or axillaries, flash beneath its wings. Its scissored, black-tipped tail may double its body length, with a male’s exceeding that of a female. This extra-long, multi-purpose tail permits the flycatcher to make abrupt turns and directional changes, as well as efficiently speed up and slow down. A folded tail reduces drag by smoothing airflow behind its body, while a fanned one enables deceleration. The flycatcher sweeps up insects with its tail. Also, the tail allows for elaborate displays for mating and defense.
Especially fond of grasshoppers, crickets, beetles and bees, scissor-tailed flycatchers hawk insects from midair, or dive to the ground for them from a perch. They also glean insects from vegetation. Keeping the same schedule as the insects, they tend to hunt during midday. These flycatchers also eat some seeds and fruit and drink from puddles.
All flycatchers have superb eyesight which enables them to track swift movements of even tiny mosquitoes. They also have well-developed rictal bristles—“Rictus” is Latin for “open mouth”—around the base of their bills which seem to heighten their tactile senses and protect their eyes from debris and flying insects during high-speed chases.
Scissor-tailed flycatchers breed throughout Texas, except for the Trans-Pecos region and Panhandle edges. A courting male may fly up to 100 feet, then descend in zigzags, singing, whirring his wings and opening and closing his tail feathers. Once united, a couple may journey together to choose a suitable nesting site—a tree, often a honey mesquite, shrub or sometimes a telephone pole—one with airspace for defense and hunting, but also with limited exposure to wind, rain and sun. Finding a promising spot, both may hop and push their breasts down onto it. The female, the sole incubator, builds an exposed cup nest, shaping it with her bill and feet, building a tough exterior of stems, string, Spanish moss and the like, while filling it with finer stuff, grasses and rootlets. Neither bronzed nor brown-headed cowbirds—birds which lay their own eggs in other birds’ nests, prompting them to raise their chicks—successfully predate on scissor-tailed flycatchers or others of their genus. In one Texas study, scissor-tailed flycatchers tossed out 20 out of 21 bronzed cowbird eggs within three days. Usually, they raise a sole brood but may renest several times if unsuccessful.
Pugnacious birds, scissor-tailed flycatchers—alone or in mobs— chase off, or attack, intruders, including mockingbirds, great-tailed grackles and red-tailed hawks, pecking, snapping their bills, whirring their wings, swooping and shrilly crying with a “keck” or “kew”. Prior to fighting, flycatchers may wing-flick, wing-flutter, whir wings, snap bills and crouch in a face-off.
Though the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declares scissor-tailed flycatchers of “least concern”, they are decreasing in numbers, with the North American Breeding Bird Survey showing a 31% decline between 1966 and 2014. Likely culprits include increased construction, uprooting of mesquite trees and use of herbicide. Naturalists recommend that, if we must repurpose their hunting grounds, we maintain single or clumped trees and allow for fallow patches where birds can continue to nest and perch.
