This is Bird Note.

That's one of the country's most unforgettable birds,

a scissor-tailed flycatcher.

And right now, they're migrating north to nest in the open country of Texas, Oklahoma, and the South Central region.

The scissor-tailed flycatcher goes beyond elegant.

It's truly a fanciful bird, robin-sized, the palest of silver grays,

with a slender, deeply forked tail that's longer than its body.

And when the scissor tail lifts its wings,

it flashes vivid salmon pink flanks and underwings.

Stunning.

Most of the scissor tail's closest relatives have normal length tails.

But with that extra length and the scissor-shaped structure

comes incredible agility in flight. As the bird flies,

it can spread and fold its tail, dramatically altering the surface area. It's almost like the

scissor tail has an extra pair of wings as it twists in mid-air, chasing down an insect.

When displaying to a female, the male scissor tail flies straight up and dive steeply down again

and again, opening and closing its tail.

And to top it off, he may even perform a reverse mid-air somersault, flashing his pink sides

and that long streamer of a tail in the same instant.

Breathaking.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.