Cedar Waxwing
Bombycilla cedrorum

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Bombycillidae
Genus: Bombycilla

Audio for Species

Call
Song

from Macaulay Library

Species Related Links

Additional Cedar Waxwing Pictures

Description

Length: 5.5-6.7 in (14-17 cm) Weight: 1.1 oz (32 g) Wingspan: 8.7-11.8 in (22-30 cm)

A sleek bird with a punk hair-like crest that usually lays flat. They have a small cluster of bright red feathers on the wings. The tail is gray with tips that are bright yellow. Adults have a pale yellow belly; the head and chest is a soft brown. The head also has a distinct black mask outlined with white. The wings and back gradate from brown at the shoulders to gray at the tips and rump. Immature birds are streaked on the throat and flanks, and often do not have the black mask of the adults. Some Cedar Waxwings have orange instead of yellow tail tips. The orange color is the result of a red pigment picked up from the berries a species of honeysuckle. If a waxwing eats enough of the berries while it is growing a tail feather, the tip of the feather will be orange.

Habitat, Range, and Feeding

Found and breeds in open wooded areas, or farms and orchards where there are fruiting trees and bushes in North America, principally southern Canada and the northern United States. The diet for the waxwing is primarily fruit, berries from a wide range of plants like, madrone, juniper, mountain ash, dogwood, honeysuckle, serviceberry, strawberry, mulberry, raspberries, and mistletoe. Their name is drawn from their appetite for cedar berries.

Cedar Waxwing pairs look for nest sites together, but the female makes the final decision and builds the nest, sometimes stealing materials from the nests of other birds. The clutch size is 2 to 6 eggs, that are pale blue or blue-gray, sometimes spotted with black or gray.