Educate Yourself About the Cedar Waxwing and Other Waxwings
Cedar Waxwing
The Cedar Waxwing has a brown crest, stubby bill, waxy red tips on secondaries, triangular wings, pale grayish undertail, coverts, and belly, short square tail, and a yellow band at the tip of tail, but lacks the rusty undertail of the Bohemian Waxwing. Its length is 7in (18cm) Its wingspan is 12in (30cm) Its voice is a thin lisp or “zeee”, sometimes slightly trilled. Their eggs are pale blue or green with irregular splotches of brown, with usually 2 clutches consisting of 4-5 or (2-6) eggs. The female incubates for around 12 days, can be 10-16 days and fledging time is usually 16 days, can be 14-18 days. Both male and female feed their young. The pair usually stays together for both broods.Male and female look alike.
The Cedar Waxwing and his look alike cousin, the Bohemian Waxwing, (a bit larger), favorite food is Cedar, ash, and juniper seeds, witch they are the most important seed dispersers of. They are very common all across the United States and Canada, but will stay mostly in the northern tier of states in the summer time, and during the winter months they will find there way more southward. Waxwings travels in flocks of a dozen or more, communicating with each other trough high, tin notes as they navigate among the tree tops, or flying high in the sky.
They will descend on insect infested trees, and berry bushes, and methodically clean off the pest and berries. Sometimes they will gather in groups in a tree near a stream, and fly out to nab mayflies that are hovering in swarms over it, to feast on.
These birds can survive on a diet consisting of mostly fruit, especially during the winter months and this is possible because of their large liver they have adapted due to such large fruit intakes, witch makes it possible for them to convert sugar into energy.
The strange waxy secrete of bright red droplets on the tips of the secondary wing feathers, found on both the male and female has baffled scientists for years on what purpose they might have. One theory is that it may serve as an indication of age, and also have something to do with mate choice, since second-year birds lack the red waxy substance. The older birds have shown to pair up with each other, instead of the younger ones, and these pairs seem to be more successful in bringing up young ones
All waxwings have a band of yellow at the tip of the tail, but waxwings that have been introduced to honeysuckles to feed on, have a bright orange band instead. Especially Cedar Waxwings have a very romantic courtship as they pass fruit back and forth to each other, with a kind of side-stepping motion.
If you like to attract the Cedar Waxwing to your lovely bird feeding garden, plant berry-producing bushes like cherries (wild and cultivated) witch they have an extra passion for, and are called the “cherry bird” for that reason. They also enjoy Mulberries hollies, crabapples, hawthorns, elderberries, just about any kind actually that hang on a tree throughout the winter.
An important thing to remember is not to plant these trees to close to a road or highway, since they can get somewhat drunk and disoriented when feasting on fermented fruits, and cause a traffic accident.
