Cedar Waxwing

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. A common winter bird they have a sheen that makes them almost look plastic or wax like!  Spotted in the area since January, and large flocks of this medium-sized bird have occurred the past two weeks. They should hang around for another month or so. 

They love the berries of the wax myrtles that line Oyster Creek!.  Every year, the flocks descend on these trees and noisily feed on the berries so you’ll need binoculars to see them.  Their call is a high-pitched, buzzy sound and you'll hear them as they fly overhead.  In the spring, they'll head to the northern US and Canada to breed, but you can see them high is trees, especially those with berries in our area. If the berries ferment, it’s quite common to see “drunken” birds. They also eat insects and are quite aerobatic. In flight they resemble European Starlings and feed, fly and roost in large flocks as shown below.

Photos copyrighted by Margaret Sloan.

Keep visiting, we are posting birds and habits as the visit the area and time permits of Winter and other varieties of birds that live or visit Quail Valley and Fort Bend.

To learn more in depth on the Cedar Waxwing or hear actual bird calls,the Cornell University has a wonderful website, press here to visit.

To see a more complete photo album of Birds from Quail Valley and Fort Bend, Birds of Quail Valley.

Comments

[Irv Smith]

Tnx for this site. I would have never been able to pin down what all these birds in my trees were just by looking in even a bird book dedicated to just Texas birds. PS: they're leaving lots of berry remnants under the trees -- natural fertilizer for the lawn, I trust!