One of the most attractive birds we see during summer is the scissor-tailed flycatcher. It can be found easily in Clark County from April to October. Just drive along country roads and watch for it perched on power lines and fences.
The bird in the photo was sitting on a fence on a Gum Springs farm recently. The farm backs up to the Old Gurdon Highway, which is one of the places were we most often see the scissor-tails. I have also seen them in town in the area of Caddo and Pine streets, near the Ouachita Baptist University tennis courts and on wires between Arkadelphia and Caddo Valley, to mention a few places.
Scissor-tailed flycatchers are very colorful with pale gray head, white chest, salmon-pink belly and black-tipped long outer tail feathers. The male and female look almost exactly alike, but the male’s tail is much longer than the female’s. Their name comes from the fact that the bird’s tail opens and closes as it flies over fields hawking insects. The length of the birds ranges from 8.7 to 14.6 inches, with only the males attaining the longest length.
The pretty flycatcher summers in Oklahoma (where it is the state bird), Texas and the western parts of Arkansas and Louisiana. It has been observed in a few surrounding states and wanders sometimes even farther away. Several years ago we saw one in a peat bog in Michigan, but it most likely didn’t breed there.
Identification of the adult male scissor-tail is very simple as there are no other birds in North America with such long outer tail feathers. The female and immature birds can be a little harder; they do resemble at least one other flycatcher that can be seen in Northwestern Arkansas in summer. That bird, the western kingbird, is only rarely seen elsewhere in the state.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers some interesting facts about scissor-tails:
The scissor-tail flycatcher forms large pre-migratory roosts in late summer with up to 1,000 birds in one flock. They often roost near towns, perhaps taking advantage of large trees as roosting sites. The scissor-tailed flycatcher uses many human products in its nest, such as string, cloth, paper, carpet fuzz and cigarette filters.
Inclement weather can be an important factor in causing nest failure in open country birds. High winds and thunderstorms can destroy large numbers of scissor-tailed flycatcher nests in some years, accounting for nearly half of all nest failures.
One fall, my husband and I found a flock of scissor-tails in the trees along the Ouachita River near the ball fields. We were fascinated at the sight of so many — although nowhere near 1,000 — of the birds.
Don’t worry about the nest failures caused by bad weather. The species is by no means threatened. It is considered among the bird species of least concern by ornithologists.
Scissor-tails are difficult to find in this area after the end of October, but a few do linger sometimes. We have been able in some years to add them to the Christmas Bird Count, which we conduct in mid-December.
If you want to see a scissor-tailed flycatcher, you won’t find it hard to do. Just check the places mentioned in this column, and you shouldn’t have much trouble at all. When they’re sitting up on wires, they often don’t flush when vehicles approach.
The series on herons should resume next week, but it depends on obtaining photos of the species not yet covered. The birds are wary and don’t necessarily take to posing for amateur photographers. Unfortunately, one great egret, which we had seen in the water along Highway 67S near the airport, reportedly didn’t get out of the way of a vehicle this week. It most likely did not survive.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dolores Harrington, who formerly wrote for the Siftings Herald, will contribute “For the Birds” periodically. Report sightings by leaving your name and phone number at the newspaper office, 246-5525, or e-mail: doloresh@suddenlink.net. Harrington will return your calls as soon as possible.