BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
SCISSOR TALES
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
This week's bird is a rarity on our island and it is one that captures every new birder's imagination. When you look at the color plate of flycatchers in the Peterson field guide there is this incredible bird whose image goes from the top to the bottom of the page. The body of the bird is in the upper left. Then the tail drops down behind the images of the other birds clear to the bottom edge - just entrancing.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Fortunately for my bird list, the U.S. Air Force decided I should live in San Antonio, Texas from 1967 to 1969. Suddenly I was in Scissor-tailed Flycatcher heaven! I could finally truly appreciate a bird that turned out to be even more wonderful than its picture.

Now let me set your expectation level correctly. Yes, you can see this bird on Nantucket. But it has only happened four times. On one of these times, though, the bird hung around from November 9 until December 12. So don't get too far away from your binoculars!

Like our Eastern Kingbirds that spend the summer with us, Scissor-tails are 'tyrant' flycatchers, part of the genus Tyrannus. As a group they are an aggressive, feisty bunch. They don't tolerate other birds near their territories. If one were to just look at the size of their bodies, they compare well with the Eastern Kingbird's eight inches. But a Scissor-tail male measures 15 inches and over half of that is tail.

One nickname for this flycatcher is the 'Texas Bird of Paradise.' The picture in the book depicts the tail, but my goodness, it doesn't convey what the bird does. During the summer in Texas they are a frequent sight on the phone wires that stretch across the prairies. Particularly in April and May when they are courting and establishing territories they often launch themselves high in the air and then dive and climb rapidly in a series of 'vee' patterns. All the time they are doing this, their magnificent tail is opening and snapping shut, scissoring the sky as they do their aerial dance. You hear their staccato calls punctuating these moves. Every time you see this it just takes your breath away.

In addition to this brilliant aerial behavior, the birds are just gorgeous. Pearly white above, the wings and tail are dark gray, fading to black with a stunning white border on the sides of the tail. In flight you see a salmon pink to almost ruby red color under the wings. You can see why the folks in Oklahoma have chosen it for their state bird.

It must be obvious to you at this point that there is absolutely no other bird you could confuse a Scissortailed Flycatcher with - and you are wrong! There is another bird that occasionally visits Nantucket that may have an even longer tail, the Fork-tailed Flycatcher. This bird's normal range is down on the main continent of South America so to get here it has to be hugely confused. Nonetheless, we have four records for this species including one at Eel Point in 2005 that I was able to photograph.

The noted David Sibley in his "The Sibley Guide to Birds" comments in his description of the Scissortail, "… beware escaped Whydas," a comment that sent me scurrying to my reference sources to see what he was talking about. Whydas are a family of African finches and it seems that one, the Pin-tailed Whydah, also has a hugely long tail. I must confess I've never known anyone who kept one for a pet, let alone heard of one in the wild, but David says we should 'beware' anyway.

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are not a threatened species. Interestingly, although over 90 percent of their diet is insects, they really don't like flies, preferring beetles instead. Their normal summer range is Texas, Oklahoma, and up into Kansas. Most of them winter in Central America except for a few that stray into southern Florida to titillate the birders down there.

As they are departing south Texas in the fall, sometimes a flock of a thousand will settle into a single tree. If you can picture one soaring and displaying, multiply that by hundreds, along with the cacophony of the calls - a sight to inspire anyone who loves nature.

It was just last year at this time that many birders on the Cape saw and photographed one of these wonderful birds at Truro near Provincetown. It brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from the late Roger Tory Peterson, "Birds have wings, and they use them." Watch the wires over the next few weeks and

you may have a 'Scissor Tale' of your own to tell. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy 'social' birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast.net.