Tyrannus forficatus
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The scissor-tailed flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus), known as swallow-tailed flycatcher or scissorstail, is a long-tailed insectivorous bird of the genus Tyrannus, whose members are collectively referred to as kingbirds. It is found in North and Central America, and is Oklahoma's State Bird.
The scissor-tailed flycatcher was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the flycatchers in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa forficata. The specific epithet is from Latin forfex, forficis meaning "a pair of scissors". Gmelin based his description on "Le moucherolle à queue fourchue du Mexique" (French: "the Mexican swallow-tailed flycatcher") that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon from a specimen from Mexico and illustrated with a hand-coloured engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet.
The scissor-tailed flycatcher is now one of 13 species placed in the kingbird genus Tyrannus that was introduced in 1799 by Bernard Germain de Lacépède. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. Within the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Palo Verde National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Las Baulas Marine National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 4 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Masaya Volcano National Park | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 6 | Santa Rosa National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 7 | Ostional Wildlife Refuge | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 8 | Rincón de la Vieja National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 9 | Cañón del Sumidero National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 10 | Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 11 | Carara National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 12 | Padre Island National Seashore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Manuel Antonio National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 14 | Big Cypress National Preserve | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Celestún Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 16 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 18 | Arenal Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 19 | Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 4 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 8 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 9 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 10 | Lima | 🇵🇪 Peru |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Aviary | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher sighting in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, based on 399 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 56th most-seen of the 274 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to September, the lowest months. That is one of Palo Verde National Park's driest months, with about 35 mm of rain against 480 mm in October.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Scissor-tailed Flycatcher sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 19 parks where we can rate Scissor-tailed Flycatcher sightings, Palo Verde National Park has the highest daily chance: about 20%. Next come Everglades National Park (United States, about 20%) and Las Baulas Marine National Park (Costa Rica, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is recorded against all the birds logged in Palo Verde National Park (399 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
