WAXWINGS

Bombycillidae

Waxwings are characterised by soft silky plumage. They have unique red tips to some of the wing feathers where the shafts extend beyond the barbs; in the Bohemian and Cedar species, these tips look like sealing wax, and give the group its common name. The legs are short and strong, and the wings are pointed. The male and female have the same plumage.

Both North American species have mainly brown plumage, a black line through the eye and black under the chin, a square-ended tail with a red or yellow tip, and a pointed crest. The bill, eyes, and feet are dark. Calls are high-pitched, buzzing or trilling monosyllables

There are just three species in the family, the Bohemian, Cedar and the Japanese species (Bombycilla japonica) of northeast Asia.

These are arboreal birds that breed in northern forests.

Their main food is fruit, which they eat from early summer (strawberries, mulberries, and serviceberries) through late summer and fall (raspberries, blackberries, cherries, and honeysuckle berries) into late fall and winter (juniper berries, grapes, crabapples, mountain ash fruits, rose hips, cotoneaster fruits, dogwood berries, and mistletoe berries).

They pluck fruit from a perch or occasionally while hovering.

In spring they replace fruit with sap, buds, and flowers.

In the warmer part of the year they catch many insects by gleaning or in midair, and often nest near water where flying insects are abundant

Reproduction:

Waxwings also choose nest sites in places with rich supplies of fruit and breed late in the year to take advantage of summer ripening. However, they may start courting as early as the winter. Pairing includes a ritual in which mates pass a fruit or small inedible object back and forth several times until one eats it (if it is a fruit). After this they may copulate.

So that many birds can nest in places with good food supplies, a pair does not defend a territory, but a bird may attack intruders, perhaps to guard its mate. Both birds gather nest materials, but the female does most of the construction, usually on a horizontal limb or in a crotch well away from the tree trunk, at any height. She makes a loose, bulky nest of twigs, grass, and lichen, which she lines with fine grass, moss, and pine needles and may camouflage with dangling pieces of grass, flowers, lichen, and moss.

The female incubates, fed by the male on the nest, but once the eggs hatch, both birds feed the young

Migration:

They are not true long-distance migrants, but wander erratically outside the breeding season and move south from their summer range in winter. In poor berry years huge numbers can erupt well beyond their normal range, often in flocks that on occasion number in the thousands.

Bohemain Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing

Waxwings and other Backyard Birds

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