scissortail

9.9

A thin gray bird with a very long forked tail and a white chest with pink and red marks

noun
/ˈsɪzərˌteɪl/

: tijereta

The scissortail darted from tree to tree, its distinctive markings bright against the blue sky.

Examples

I spotted a scissortail resting on a branch, its long tail elegantly fanned out behind it.
My most cherished memory of loving him was seeing him, jacketless, tie flapping, running out into the snow under the picture window to scatter bird seed so he could teach me the names of the birds: scissortail swallow, junco, grackle.

Academic text (2001)
In the early morning, the scissortail sang beautifully, making it a joy to watch the bird flit about.

Synonyms

Muscivora forficata

vsscissortail

Specialized

9.9

A pale gray bird with a long forked tail and pink chest from southern US and Central America

is the common everyday name rather than the Latin label

scissortailed flycatcher

vsscissortail

9.6

A grey bird with a long forked tail and a white breast with pink and red markings

uses American spelling and identical descriptive sense

Surface Forms

scissortail singular

scissortails plural

Morphology

scissortail = scissor + tail (opaque) = scissor + tail

While the components 'scissor' and 'tail' are clear, the specific meaning of a bird with a forked tail is not a standard derivation.

Etymology

Scissortail comes from the two simple words scissor and tail, because the bird's long, deeply forked tail looks like open scissors. So the name helps you remember a bird with a tail that splits like scissors.