Cedar Waxwing

Bombycilla cedrorium

Introduction

The Cedar Waxwing is a common, but irregular bird in any habitat where fruit and other foods such as tree buds, flowers and insects are found. It is named for the red, wax like tips on the secondary flight feathers of adult birds. It breeds in Canada approximately east to west between the 60th and 49th parallel and winters in the southern United States, Mexico, Central America and northwestern South America.

Identification

Adult Male (spring/summer)

Warm brown head, nape and crest, which often droops, with striking black mask lined with white on cheek and forehead. Back and wing coverts darker brown, primary flight feathers gray, secondaries gray with red wax like tips and white inner edge on tertials. Rump gray, tail dark gray with yellow tips. Chest brown, yellow wash across belly and white undertail coverts. Eyes, beak and feet black.

Adult Female (spring/summer)

Similar to adult male.

Juvenile

Short crest and mottled dusky, especially on chest. Overall, duller than adult.

General Information

General:

Smooth, sleek and crested passerine. Length: 14-17cm. Wing: 22-30. Weight: 32grams.

Behaviour:

Sugary fruits dominate the diet of the Cedar Waxwing most of the year, but it adds insects to its diet during the summer, gleaning them from vegetation or capturing them near streams or ponds by aerial sallies from exposed perches. Its flocking and unpredictable nomadic movements are typical of animals that feed on patchily distributed foods, such as fruits.

Habitat:

Cedar Waxwings are usually found in mixed forests and edges where their favorite foods of berries and insects are found. They are found in the proximity to humans, as there is usually an abundance of berries in the Orchards and city parks. In winter they are most abundant around fruiting plants in open woodlands, parks, gardens, forest edges and second-growth forests.

Information:

Cedar Waxwings nest in both rural and urban environments and, exhibit a much lower level of return to former breeding sites than other passerines. Often the nest is in close proximity to humans, perhaps because of the greater likelihood of finding fruits or berries when needed. Most arrive on their breeding ground in late May and early June. Autumn departure is usually in late August and September, but if rearing second broods, may be into October. The nest consists of a loose configuration of twigs and grass woven onto a horizontal branch and bolstered with mosses and lichens. The clutch is3-6 blue-grey dotted eggs. The Cedar Waxwing is the latest bird to initiate nesting as they time it to have ripe fruit for nestlings. Voice: Often heard before they are seen their call is a high sibilant see-e-e , sometimes lightly trilled.

Similar species: Bohemian Waxwing.

Conservation Status:

Listed as Least Concern. Populations are stable.

Maps & Statistics

Capture Rates

Capture rates of Cedar Waxwing peak in late spring through summer (May – September). Prominent fruit eaters, high numbers of waxwings were caught in June corresponding to the peak of fruiting shrubs like elderberry at Colony Farm. Cedar Waxwing are medium distance migrants, moving south for the winter as seen by our zero capture rate between October – April.

Ageing and Sexing (Band Size: 1B)

Molt Summary:

PF: HY partial, PB: AHY/ASY complete, PA absent – Preformative molt usually includes few IF ANY wing covs, and no terts or rects.

Look for occasional AHY/ASY’s to retain 1-4 ss (among s3-s6).

Juvenile

June - November

Hatch Year (HY) birds in juvenile plumage have whitish chins, heavy streaking to the underparts, loosely textured feathers, soft, pale gapes, duller irises and paler bills (photos below).

HY/SY

November - October

In HY/SY birds the number and length of waxy tips on the wing is smaller often with none at all – compare with adult birds below.

HY/SY rectrices are fairly tapered with much less extensive yellow tips normally extending to barely 3-4mm from the tip.

AHY/ASY

November - October

The number and length of the waxy red secretions found on the tips of the remiges (primaries and secondaries) is generally age related and helps with both ageing and sexing of CEDW.

The exact function of these tips (photos immediately below) is not known, but is thought to help attract mates.

CEDWs red waxy appendages are usually restricted to the secondary flight feathers of the wing, giving a usual maximum of nine wax tips per wing (seven wax tips is by far the commonest number).

Rarely, some tail feathers (see below will also have the tips of their shafts red. More rarely still, small red wax tips can be seen on one to a few inner primary wing feathers.

Adult (AHY/ASY) birds develop a greater number and longer waxy tips than first year (HY/SY) birds with generally 7 or more tips with the longest more than 4-5mm in length. Some overlap between AHY/ASY and HY/SY birds exists but the combination of a large number of long waxy appendages and extensive yellow to the tips of the rectrices, sometimes also with waxy appendages (see below) is generally reliable for ageing adult birds.

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 (Tatarian Honeysuckle). If a waxwing eats enough of these berries while it is growing tail feathers, the tips of the feathers will be orange and not yellow.

The bird below showed white tips to the outer two rectrices possibly from eating berries containing a pigment to cause the tips to appear whitish.

Sex

Males

Males can be separated from females by the number and length of waxy tips described above and by the extensive glossy black chin (photo below); the black patch normally more than 10 mm in width and extending further down towards the throat.

Sex

Females

The number and length of waxy tips is smaller by age in females; the chin dull or brownish and the black patch normally no more than 5 mm in width and not extending below the chin towards the throat.