A plain little bird is drawing flocks of human admirers to the trees around Mrak Hall. It is a scissor-tailed flycatcher, a species typically seen only a few times a year in the entire state, and never before documented in Yolo County.

This particular bird is less than a year old and is still growing its hallmark long tail feathers. For now, it's a light-gray bird, about the size of a mockingbird, with salmon-colored feathers on its sides and a fine vermilion line of epaulettes at the top of each wing -- and a long-ish tail.

It was first spotted on Dec. 12 in a magnolia tree outside Mrak Hall by News Service staffer Sylvia Wright. The discovery caused a flurry of excitement among regional birders, but the flycatcher wasn't seen again until Alison Kent of Graduate Studies spotted it on Jan. 16.

Within minutes, word was out on the birding grapevine, and now each morning many birders, including some from other counties, gather on the Mrak Hall apron to view the bird through binoculars and spotting scopes.

The state bird of Oklahoma, scissor-tailed flycatchers (Tyrannus forficatus) are commonly found in summer in open country in the south-central United States and in winter from southern Mexico to Costa Rica. This vagrant bird may have a genetic defect that impairs its ability to navigate by the Earth's magnetic fields. For now, it's found a tolerable winter home in Mrak Hall's magnolia trees and near the campus wastewater treatment plant on Old Davis Road.

For more details about the scissor-tailed flycatcher, see http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CENV.html.