Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Oklahoma's Tropical Ambassador

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Threats to Existence

Once the young scissor-tailed flycatchers leave the nest, they face a variety of challenges ranging from natural predators to human disturbance. In Oklahoma, poachers sometimes kill scissortails for their tail feathers. Wildlife law enforcement officials recently arrested 50 people who had either killed or sold federally protected birds, including scissortails. The scissortail feathers were being used to make peyote fans, an item used in Native American religious ceremonies. It takes nearly 80 scissortail feathers to make one fan, and some biologists speculate that poaching these birds has caused declines in some local populations.

An even more serious threat to scissortails than poaching however, is loss of habitat. Scissortails prefer grassland habitats with a few scattered trees. When trees are removed from pastures and meadows, the scissortails lose their nesting sites and places to perch while hunting for grasshoppers and other insects. The scattered trees growing along fencerows are another favorite place for scissortails. When the trees are cleared from these fencelines or when the fencelines themselves are removed, the scissortails lose more habitat.

Due to habitat destruction in North America and in the rainforests of Central and South America, populations of many of our Neotropical migrants are decreasing. Unless we reverse the negative impact humans are having on habitat and the species that depend on it, many of our songbirds-including the scissor-tailed flycatcher-face dire consequences.

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