From its long tail to its famous "sky dance," no other Oklahoma bird
is more striking and identifiable than the scissor-tailed flycatcher. No wonder
the State Legislature adopted the scissortail as the state bird May 26, 1951,
after school children discovered enormous support from garden clubs and Audubon
Society chapters. The selection is even more special because none of the other
seven states in which scissortails nest have named it as their state bird.
The scissor-tailed flycatcher is known by other names as
well scissortail, Texas bird-of-paradise and swallow- tailed flycatcher. It is
obvious how the bird acquired its common names, but its former Latin name -Muscivora
forficata -describes the bird in even grander terms. Muscivora derives from
the Latin word for "fly" (musca) and "to devour" (vorare), while Forficata
comes from forfex, or scissors. The scissortail now is a member of the genus Tyrannus,
or "tyrant-like flycatchers." This genus earned its name because several
species are extremely aggressive on their breeding territories, where they will
attack larger birds such as crows, hawks and owls. |
