A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher…in New YORK?

A woefully out-of-range Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was observed at the end of a country road in Savannah, NY on Saturday, October 24th by birder/photographer Doug Racine.  The sighting was routed to Bob Marcotte, a birder and writer for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, who took measures to inform the local birding listserv and wrote an informative post of this bird and Doug’s sighting at his blog: This flycatcher is a real rarity here.

We’re hosting out-of-town guests, so I will post these photos for all to see, but need to keep my text brief. 

This site is located just north of Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, a bird watcher’s mecca located in central New York at the north end of Cayuga Lake (Ithaca, NY, home to Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is located at the lake’s southern tip).

Paul and I took off for the bird at sunrise, and surprise, surprise, we weren’t the only ones. We were joined by a parade of cars rumblign down the country road by 8:30 am.  Several birders were already on site and had the bird in their scopes – thanks to those who let us have a peek. 

We first observed the flycatcher sitting on a blade of tall grass in a large field. Eventually, it caught a large grasshopper and flew to the wires to enjoy its find. Then the bird started dashing and darting in the sunlight as it chased after other tasty morsels. Eventually, the bird settled on a denuded shrub and though it was backlit, it was supremely cooperative to the dozen or so birders aiming their various forms of shiny black machinery at it.

Juvenile Scissor-tailed Flycatchers have a shorter tail and yellowish underwing coverts. This individual has a shorter tail, but its underwing coverts and sides are the characteristic pink in most photos (see comments). Skilled birders believe this is a juvenile but that the sex of this bird is best left "unknown."

In the U.S., the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher breeds in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and, as my pal Mike Powers adds, are “dirt common in [his former stomping grounds in] western Arkansas.”  I’ll refer you to Bob Marcotte’s blog post for more information about just HOW rare this bird is in New York, but only 12 other sightings have been accepted in the state as of 2005.

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is a special bird for me. First, it’s a lifer. Second, I rarely dream of birds…let me rephrase that. I ALWAYS dream of birds, but mostly I daydream about them. But when my REM-induced dream state occurs, the only birds that ever show up are of the scissor-tailed, fork-tailed, or swallow-tailed variety. Why’s that?

I think a native American elder might explain it, but in any case, seeing them is ALWAYS a real high, perhaps a good omen of some sort. The last time I was lucky enough to add a species from the “dream bird” variety I was in Honduras, en route to see one of the world’s most endangered hummingbirds (the Honduran Emerald) on a dusty road in the department of Olanchito.

Fork-tailed Flycatcher looks like an Eastern Kingbird but with a longer (much longer) tail. Sibley describes its tail as "extremely long, black tail, relatively loose and floppy; tends to curve inward and down." In contrast, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher's tail is "relatively stiff and straight" like scissor blades. I captured this photo on the road to Olanchito, Honduras, in April, 2008.

Eventually, the bird flew back amidst the open grassland and we flew (well, drove) back to our house guests. It’s not lost on me that the town it chose to stop in is named Savannah.