Cedar Waxwing
Bombycilla cedrorum
eBird describes the Cedar Waxwing like this: This medium-sized passerine is brown overall with a pale yellow wash on the belly. It is named for the waxy red tips on some of the wing feathers. Also look for the yellow-tipped tail, sleek crest, short bill, and black mask and throat bordered by white. Thin, high-pitched call is distinctive. Usually in flocks in open woods and edges of woodlands. Often perches in tops of leafless trees. Shifts diet from insects to primarily berries in the fall and winter. All About Birds provides this additional descriptive information about the Cedar Waxwing: A treat to find in your binocular viewfield, the Cedar Waxwing is a silky, shiny collection of brown, gray, and lemon-yellow, accented with a subdued crest, rakish black mask, and brilliant-red wax droplets on the wing feathers. In fall these birds gather by the hundreds to eat berries, filling the air with their high, thin, whistles. In summer you’re as likely to find them flitting about over rivers in pursuit of flying insects, where they show off dazzling aeronautics for a forest bird.
I saw and photographed my first Cedar Waxwings on the morning of January 6, 2021 while walking in the Tropical Zone of the Estero Llano Grande State Park. There was a flock of 28 birds perched high in a tree. I hope someday to get a closer look and better photos of this beautiful bird. For details of the trip that includes my visit with the Cedar Waxwings, look here. Below are a couple of the photos I took that day.
“Cool Facts” About the Cedar Waxwing From All About Birds…
- The name “waxwing” comes from the waxy red secretions found on the tips of the secondaries of some birds. The exact function of these tips is not known, but they may help attract mates.
- Cedar Waxwings with orange instead of yellow tail tips began appearing in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada in the 1960s. The orange color is the result of a red pigment picked up from the berries of an introduced species of honeysuckle. If a waxwing eats enough of the berries while it is growing a tail feather, the tip of the feather will be orange.
- The Cedar Waxwing is one of the few North American birds that specializes in eating fruit. It can survive on fruit alone for several months. Brown-headed Cowbirds that are raised in Cedar Waxwing nests typically don’t survive, in part because the cowbird chicks can’t develop on such a high-fruit diet.
- Many birds that eat a lot of fruit separate out the seeds and regurgitate them, but the Cedar Waxwing lets them pass right through. Scientists have used this trait to estimate how fast waxwings can digest fruits.
- Because they eat so much fruit, Cedar Waxwings occasionally become intoxicated or even die when they run across overripe berries that have started to ferment and produce alcohol.
- Building a nest takes a female Cedar Waxwing 5 to 6 days and may require more than 2,500 individual trips to the nest. They occasionally save time by taking nest materials from other birds’ nests, including nests of Eastern Kingbirds, Yellow-throated Vireos, orioles, robins, and Yellow Warblers.
- The oldest recorded Cedar Waxwing was a male and at least 7 years, 1 month old when he was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Maryland in 2014. He had been banded in the same state in 2008.