This bird was spotted in Waterloo region for the first time in over 30 years

Local birders in Waterloo region are aflutter over a little bird with a bright flush of salmon pink and grey.

The scissor-tailed flycatcher hasn't been seen in the area for over 30 years — since 1990. But just last week it made a temporary home at the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory, causing a stir on social media.

On May 28th, Tyler Hampton was one of the first birders who heard news about the sighting through an online database for bird observations called eBird.

"I got in the car within five minutes," he said. "When I got to the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory, there were already like a flock of like 20 something people ... their cameras raised or their binoculars up or they're looking down ... and then the bird flew over the field a little bit and everybody's binoculars kind of turned in unison."

The scissor-tailed flycatcher flew around in that area for about a week after Hampton went to see it, bringing joy to many other birders.

Ian Fairchild drove all the way from Burlington to Cambridge just to see the city's special visitor.

"I skipped work," he said, standing with his camera and large white zoom lens strapped to his shoulder. "What's special [about the bird] is the long tail. This one has a little bit of red on it. There's a scissor-tailed flycatcher and a fork-tailed flycatcher. A fork tail, I believe, is more black and whitish. This one's got a lot of red on its chest, on its belly."

Stefanie Blacker is a Cambridge resident thrilled to get a chance to see such a unique bird so close to home.

"It kind of turns into Pokémon where when you see different birds, you're collecting them, different ones to see," she said. "I saw all the buzz on Facebook and thought, I'm about 20 minutes away from here. I thought I'd just come and check it out!"

Neither Fairchild nor Blacker got to see the bird that day.

A rare visit

It took more than thirty years to see the scissor-tailed flycatcher in Waterloo region — and it may take many more years to see it again.

That's according to Liam McGuire, an associate professor from the University of Waterloo's department of biology.

He says the bird primarily breeds in the south-central parts of the United States and migrates down to Southern Mexico and Central America for the winter.

"For reasons that we don't actually fully understand, this species is very prone to vagrancy. They wander a lot," he said.

"We're still coming through the tail end of spring migration right now. So this is exactly the time of year you might expect these birds to kind of pop up in unusual places every year ... there's actually records of scissor-tailed flycatchers in every Canadian province."

He also explained how the bird got its unusual name.

"If you look at the bird, it's got very, very elongated tail feathers, but especially the outer tail feathers ... so the tail really does look very much like a pair of scissors. It's kind of closed when they're perched and opens up when they're when they're flying and catching insects," he said.

"They are flycatchers. They jump off from their perches and they catch flies and beetles and grasshoppers and other things that they're going to eat themselves and feed to their chicks."