Fifty Five Years As Our State Bird

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Tyrannus Forticatus - Oklahoma’s State Bird Since May of 1951.
Few birds equal the subtle beauty and graceful elegance of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. Its upper body parts are pale, pearl gray, while its whitish under parts are flushed with salmon pink. The wings are dark and the long, scissor-shaped tail feathers are white with black tips. They have black bills and black feet. Adult Scissor-tails are approximately 13 inches in length, the male's tail being longer than the female's. They typically lay 4 to 6 whitish eggs mottled with brown, violet or gray. The nest is a grass-lined cup of twigs and weed stems in a tree or bush.
The Scissor-tail ranges from southern Nebraska to southern Texas, migrating southward in the fall to Mexico and Central America and then returning in the Spring.
A member of the Tyrannidae Family, these "Tyrant" flycatchers are aptly named as they rigorously rule their territories, never hesitating to chase off a passing crow or hawk. Swooping repeatedly amidst a tirade of shrill, bickering notes or harsh keck or kew calls, the Scissor-tail pecks at the less mobile subject of its wrath until the harried target is only too happy to escape.
As a child all I would have to do to see one was to look at a barbed wire fence or a high line wire for a moment and one was surely to appear. When I would go on trips with my family my Mother would try and keep us kids quiet in the car by making a game of seeing who could count the most Scissor-tails from their side of the car. Whenever I think of my childhood Summers it involves dry weather, blue skies, white clouds, tall grass, and Scissor-tails. It’s a good memory to dwell on sometimes