Tag Archives: Cedar Waxwing

An ear-full of waxwings

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Pointy on one end, blunt on the other, the European Starling.

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A silhouette of starlings, perched on a wire over a busy street. Why do they like the busiest streets?

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Is this Cedar Waxwing singing, or screaming at the top of its lungs?

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Big flocks of Cedar Waxwings are still here in Sewall’s Point. Shouldn’t they be heading north by now? Human snowbirds are pretty much gone. Traffic is blessedly light.

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Cedar Waxwings are easier to hear than see, unless they are moving across the sky from the tops of one big tree to another.

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When they are not eating tree fruit/ berries, they perch close together and hang out, not moving too much.

Collective nouns for waxwings are an ear-full and a museum. (Link.)

A Museum of Wax(wings), get it?

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Solo or in small flocks, White Ibis are ubiquitous.

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This one was standing on a tree limb across the street from our driveway, keeping a big blue eye on the lady with the camera.

Waxwings and a sapsucker

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A large flock Cedar Waxwings was in the trees across the street again yesterday. They were eating berries on the strangler fig and perching in cozy little crowds in the live oak.

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There have been lots of these pretty birds in Sewall’s Point this March.

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This woodpecker was with the waxwings.

At first I thought it was a big Downy Woodpecker (since I  just learned in my Audubon class that there are no Hairy Woodpeckers around here). Then when I looked at the photo on my laptop I briefly thought it was a rare Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

But Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes that the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker has a white wing patch that the Red-cockaded does not have.

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This is my first Yellow-bellied Sapsucker!.. the bird that everyone uses to make fun of birders and bird names.

On a walk through the forest you might spot rows of shallow holes in tree bark. In the East, this is the work of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, an enterprising woodpecker that laps up the leaking sap and any trapped insects with its specialized, brush-tipped tongue.

They are migratory and will be heading north soon.

Cedar waxwings are Florida snowbirds

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Cedar Waxwings visited the live oak tree across the street from our house in Sewall’s Point, Florida yesterday in the early afternoon.

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Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 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.

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We spotted several large flocks flying over, plus this flock that had settled in for some perching and trilly whistling. Maybe 50 or 60 birds in this tree?

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I’ve only seen Cedar Waxwings in winter, when we lived in New Hampshire. They liked the berries from the winterberry holly growing wild around us.

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Cedar Waxwings are social birds that form large flocks and often nest in loose clusters of a dozen or so nests. When feeding on fruits, Cedar Waxwings pluck them one by one and swallow the entire thing at once. They typically feed while perched on a twig, but they’re also good at grabbing berries while hovering briefly just below a bunch. When eating insects, waxwings either fly out from an exposed perch, or make long, zig-zagging flights over water.

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Notice that the bird on the left has an orange-tipped rather than yellow-tipped tail. What’s that all about? I don’t know.

During courtship, males and females hop towards each other, alternating back and forth and sometimes touching their bills together. Males often pass a small item like a fruit, insect, or flower petal, to the female. After taking the fruit, the female usually hops away and then returns giving back the item to the male. They repeat this a few times until, typically, the female eats the gift.

I saw a few of them do this. Charming!

It’s all about the berries

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Song sparrow. Lots of them around lately.

I spent much time looking for birds in my big backyard yesterday. It was sunny and 50 degrees.

Since I took down the feeders when we put our house on the market I have to go in search of the birds instead of waiting for them to come to me. I was rewarded yesterday with two new species for my count.

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Hermit Thrush is Backyard Bird #62. I often see one (this one?) at a certain spot on the path into the woods. I was happy to finally get some photos, in the morning and then again in the mid-afternoon.

An unassuming bird with a lovely, melancholy song, the Hermit Thrush lurks in the understories of far northern forests in summer and is a frequent winter companion across much of the country. It forages on the forest floor by rummaging through leaf litter or seizing insects with its bill. The Hermit Thrush has a rich brown upper body and smudged spots on the breast, with a reddish tail that sets it apart from similar species in its genus.

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This is the path into the woods where I see the Hermit Thrush. We hear its song in May and into the summer – one of the most beautiful songs you can imagine! Click here to LISTEN.

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Radar has a nice morning walk in his own backyard. We will miss this place! Closing on November 29 and heading south to Florida shortly thereafter. We will take memories and photos with us.

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This American Robin looks like it just woke up.

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Such a bold white eye ring. There were 20 or so robins a short distance from the path that heads into the red maple swamp. They were eating winterberries and whistling softly to themselves.

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Robins are members of the Thrush family, just like the hermit thrush and my old friends the bluebirds.

Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground.

They do good things with their poop…

Turdidae species spread the seeds of plants, contributing to the dispersal of many species and the recovery of ecosystems.

Plants have limited seed dispersal mobility away from the parent plant and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, including both abiotic and biotic vectors. Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant individually or collectively, as well as dispersed in both space and time.

Many bats and birds rely heavily on fruits for their diet, including birds in the families Cotingidae, Columbidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, and Rhamphastidae. While eating fruit, these animals swallow seeds and then later regurgitate them or pass them in their faeces. Such ornithochory has been a major mechanism of seed dispersal across ocean barriers.

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I spotted this Halloween-masked bird in a tree by the garden, near a big winterberry patch. It posed for a while, but my viewing angle was limited to the front of the bird from below.

Looked at the photos inside, checking for ID online, and decided it was a Cedar Waxwing. Backyard bird #63!

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Size & Shape
The Cedar Waxwing is a medium-sized, sleek bird with a large head, short neck, and short, wide bill. Waxwings have a crest that often lies flat and droops over the back of the head. The wings are broad and pointed, like a starling’s. The tail is fairly short and square-tipped.

Color Pattern
Cedar Waxwings are pale brown on the head and chest fading to soft gray on the wings. The belly is pale yellow, and the tail is gray with a bright yellow tip. The face has a narrow black mask neatly outlined in white. The red waxy tips to the wing feathers are not always easy to see.

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Cedar Waxwings love fruit. To attract waxwings to your yard, plant native trees and shrubs that bear small fruits, such as dogwood, serviceberry, cedar, juniper, hawthorn, and winterberry.

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In the afternoon, I saw the Hermit Thrush again. Slightly better photo helped me be more sure of identification. As sure as I ever am, as an amateur bird watcher.

Hermit Thrush is one of five similar thrushes in the genus Catharus. Though they look alike, they’re also quite easy to tell apart using careful observation and accounting for your location and time of year. For instance, Hermit Thrush is the only one of these species that lives in the U.S. in winter. Swainson’s Thrush has a bolder, buffy eyering, more rounded spots on the breast, and no contrast between the color of the tail and the back. The Veery is entirely warm reddish-brown (again, no contrast between tail and back), and has weaker breast spotting. Wood Thrush has bold, black breast spots, so distinct that you can make out each individual spot. They have a bold white eyering and are warmer reddish-brown above, and are noticeably larger than Hermit Thrush. Gray-cheeked Thrush and Bicknell’s Thrush are uncommon in many areas, even within their far northern breeding range. They are much grayer overall, with an indistinct eyering and very plain face.

I will miss this bird’s beautiful song next spring!

In spring and summer, you’ll likely hear their mournful, flute-like song, oh, holy holy, ah, purity purity eeh, sweetly sweetly long before you see them. In winter they are frequently near berry-bearing plants.