Scissor Tail King Tyrant
| Scissor Tail King Tyrant | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scissor-tail king tyrant ( Tyrannus forficatus ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Tyrannus forficatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1766) |
The scissors-tailed king tyrant ( Tyrannus forficatus ) is a passerine bird from the family of tyrants within the suborder of the screeching birds .
features
The scissors tail king tyrant has an extremely long forked black tail. The bird is colored gray on the upper side; the underside is lighter with pink flanks. The young birds are less colorful and have shorter tails.
Occurrence
This shrieker breeds in open scrubland with isolated trees in the central south of the USA and northeastern Mexico and winters in southern Mexico and in Central America. Sometimes the bird shows up on the coast of the United States and is rarely seen in southern Canada. The Scissorstail King Tyrant is the state bird of Oklahoma .
behavior
The bird, which aggressively defends its breeding ground, feeds on insects that it hunts from a perch and occasionally on berries.
Reproduction
During the courtship , the male performs spectacular sightseeing flights. A bowl-shaped nest is built in a bush or tree, sometimes on a telephone pole. Both parent birds feed the young birds.
Web links
- Tyrannus forficatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Tyrannus forficatus in the Internet Bird Collection