What Is Oklahoma’s State Bird? Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher

Oklahoma's official state bird is the scissor-tailed flycatcher, one of the most visually striking birds you'll ever spot perched on a fence post or power line along an Oklahoma highway.

The official answer, straight from the statute

The scissor-tailed flycatcher was designated Oklahoma's state bird on May 26, 1951, and the designation is codified in Oklahoma Statutes Title 25, Section 98 (25 O.S. § 98). The statute names it by both common name and its scientific name, Muscivora forficata. If you ever need to verify this for a school project, a quiz, or just to settle a debate, that statute citation is your gold-standard confirmation. The Oklahoma Historical Society also lists it directly in their state symbols reference under the same citation.

What makes this bird so easy to recognize

Honestly, once you know what you're looking for, you won't mistake this bird for anything else in Oklahoma. The scissor-tailed flycatcher is only about 11 to 15 inches long from beak to body, but its tail is proportionately longer than any other bird found in the state. That tail is deeply forked, black and white, and when the bird opens it in flight, it looks exactly like a pair of scissors snapping open. Combined with its pale gray head and back and bright salmon-pink sides and belly, it's a genuinely beautiful bird.

A quick field tip: look along roadsides, ranch fences, and open pastures. The scissortail loves open and semi-open country with scattered perches it can use as a hunting platform. It's an insect eater, so you'll often see it dart off a wire, snag a bug mid-air, and return to the same spot. That sallying behavior is a reliable clue even before you get a close look at the tail.

ID at a glance

• Body length: 11 to 15 inches, with the tail often doubling the total visual length
• Tail: very long, deeply forked, black and white, opens like scissors in flight
• Coloring: pale gray head and back, white underparts, salmon-pink flanks and underwings
• Behavior: perches in open areas, sallies out to catch insects, returns to the same perch
• Habitat: roadsides, ranches, chaparral, open grasslands, agricultural edges

What it sounds like

If you're trying to identify one by ear, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation describes the call as something close to "cah-kee... cah-key... CAH-KEY," getting louder as it goes. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the song as a series of sharp notes that rise in pitch and speed up toward the end. It's a chattery, assertive little call that fits the bird's personality. You're most likely to hear it early in the morning or when a bird is defending its territory.

When and where to find one in Oklahoma

The scissor-tailed flycatcher is statewide during summer, which is exactly when most people visit open Oklahoma landscapes. They show up in spring, breed across the state, and then head south in fall. During winter months, you're more likely to find them in southern and southeastern Oklahoma, or farther south into Central America. Like most songbirds, scissortails migrate at night, so the birds you see on your morning drive weren't there the evening before.

Spring and early summer are the best times to see them. April through July you'll find them almost anywhere in Oklahoma with open fields and a few scattered perches. Drive any rural highway and you'll likely spot several in a single trip.

Why Oklahoma picked this bird, and why it's a little unusual

Here's something that comes up a lot when people ask what is unusual about the state bird of Oklahoma: the scissor-tailed flycatcher is a neotropical migrant, meaning it spends part of its life in Central America and only summers in the United States. According to local coverage around the bird's 50th anniversary as state bird, Oklahoma is one of only two states to have chosen a neotropical migrant as its official state bird. Most states went with year-round residents, so this choice reflects something genuinely distinctive about Oklahoma's relationship with the natural world.

The choice also reflects how deeply connected the scissortail is to the Oklahoma landscape. It's a bird of wide-open grasslands and agricultural edges, the kind of terrain that defines much of the state. Conservation groups like the American Bird Conservancy note that scissortails share that grassland habitat with other birds of conservation concern, making the species a good ambassador for a broader ecosystem that deserves attention.

A few things worth knowing before you go looking

If you're taking a class field trip, planning a nature walk, or just want to teach kids about Oklahoma's state symbols, the scissor-tailed flycatcher is one of the easiest state birds to actually see in the wild. It doesn't hide in forests or require a birding scope. It sits out in the open, often at eye level on a roadside fence, and its tail makes it unmistakable once you've seen one. That accessibility is part of what makes it such a great ambassador species for the state.

If you're curious how Oklahoma's choice compares to neighboring states, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas each made their own distinct picks, and those stories are worth exploring if you enjoy the state bird rabbit hole. But for Oklahoma, the scissortail is the clear answer, officially on the books since May 26, 1951, and still one of the most recognizable birds in the region.