Cedar Waxwings visited us.

15 years ago

Today as I stood at the kitchen window looking at the bird feeder and waterer in the front yard, I saw cedar waxwings begin to visit the waterer. At one time 6 were lined up on the rim of the waterer. Then they flew and more arrived and so on for several minutes. They did not visit the feeder, only the waterer. Don't know what they are eating. One year I saw a flock of them working the hackberrys but by now the tree is pretty well bare. It was neat to see them, with their little yellow striped tails and black masked faces.

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Comments (6)

helenh
15 years ago
I have seen them before in a little flock; they move on. Their feathers are so neat looking.
christie_sw_mo
15 years ago
I still have never seen one in my yard. My hackberries are too far from the house to monitor and my service berries are too small to make many berries. I hope when those get bigger, I'll get to see waxwings.
My viburnum dentatum is still loaded with berries. I didn't expect them to last this long.
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Thanks to the repliers. Since some things that go 'boom' bother neighbors, I tried a 'boom box', as someone had suggested that appropriate-volume, AM talk radio could possibly make nightly muscadine-eating raccoons/opossums uncomfortable at the supper table.(political comment withheld) In four days of radioed human voices, the group of (now numbering 20) berry-fanatic Cedar Waxwings have not been back to gobble up every berry that wasn't 100% green.Three mulberry trees within 40 feet of the radio are now back to providing ripe berries for humans.I have only seen or heard a couple stragglers that landed on 60 foot high nearby branches, waited a while, and later left. Even people like me can learn something about talk radio, but the Cedar Waxwings want nothing to do with it...so far.Regretfully, the mosquitos are unaffected.
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Hey Marcia,.... cedar waxwings!
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Comments (2)
Thanks for the heads up, Kristi! Yes, I know what you mean about hearing them. That's how I usually find them, too, as they have a very distinctive chittering sort of sound they make. (I hope I can still hear them this year, but I've lost a lot of high-frequency sounds. Everyone was enjoying listening to a catbird yesterday at Emeralda Marsh, and I couldn't hear a thing!) Waxwings are so beautiful! They look like satin, they are so smooth. Beautiful markings on their faces, and that little dot of red is cool, isn't it? They have an endearing habit of sitting on a line or branch and taking a berry and passing it down the line, one bird to the other, with the last one getting to eat it. Hope I see some soon. Pictures for those of you who have never seen one or don't know what they look like: You can see in this picture that what looks like a small red spot on the feathers (in the photo above) is actually a tipping of a heavier type on the ends of certain feathers. That's the "wax" of "waxwing." It reminded early settlers of the sealing wax that was used on envelopes. For more info, including songs, check out the link below. These are lovely birds and watching flocks of them come through on migration is a lot of fun. Marcia Here is a link that might be useful: Cedar Waxwing Info & Song
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Susan, I'm mostly seeing Sulphurs, which we have in great profusion here, and also a few Question Marks and Commas. I haven't seen any Red Admirals yet, but we had a billion of them last year so I'm sure I'll see some before too long. We have a small handful of native wildflowers blooming, and the orange tree was blooming for the last 2 or 3 weeks but it is finished now. We have had high temps in the upper 70s a couple of times lately, and all the little flying critters came out of the woodwork like crazy on those days. On the day we hit 78 degrees, red wasps were out. We have the most honey bees I've ever seen out and about in January, and I hope that is a sign that the honey bee population is healthy and abundant this year. Helen, If I forget and leave cat food on the porch after dark, we have a steady stream of visitors, including armadillos, possums and coons coming to eat it. I try to remember to bring in the food at night so we don't encourage these varmints to hang around close to the house. We just have too much wildlife here. Last night I stepped out onto the back porch to call the cat who had not yet come indoors for the night, and there were three deer standing about 15 or 20' from the porch. I think they were coming to the side yard to eat any bird seed that the birds had dropped from the bird feeder to the ground. All the wildlife here is so hungry and has a hard time finding food they like at this time of the year. We have a yard full of cottontail rabbits every night. I'm not sure if they're eating bird seed or maybe the winter rye grass. Dawn
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MM, What a wonderful experience! As you have seen, the story that birds will abandon babies and nests if they smell humans is an old wive's tale. I have been fortunate to have bluebirds nest in my yard, and they will even tolerate a nest change when it has been extremely necessary. Some species are more wary than others, but most have a very poor sense of smell. I have found most of the songbirds that actually take care of their young (other than cowbirds) are actually very loyal to them. They will risk their own safety (to a point) to insure the babies' survival. Nature does bless them with enough sense to preserve their own life in extreme threats (like wasps) however. After all, baby songbirds have a 1 in 2 chance of making through the first year. It wouldn't make sense for the breeding pair to throw all caution to the wind and give up their own lives. They can always go on and raise another brood afterall.
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gldno1
15 years ago
christie, I would love to see a picture of your viburnum dentatum if you get the time.

I would be thrilled to see the Cedar Waxwings here, but never have.

BTW, I just bought 20 lbs of wild bird seed at the MFA in Ash Grove and paid $7.25 for it which makes it the cheapest so far. I does seem light on BO Sunflower seeds though.
pauln
15 years ago
Cedar waxwings are probably my favorite bird. I used to live in a tiny cottage that had 2 huge yaupon hollies loaded with berries. The robins and mockingbirds didn't take much interest in the berries until the waxwings would start to show up. They would stand guard as the visitors gathered on the powerline. Finally, one waxwing would fly down to the yaupon and draw the guard away. The others would then all swoop down and start their feeding frenzy. After a day or two, the berries would be completely gone.

Once, I happened to look outside to see an amazing sight. The waxwings were covering my yaupon, and flying down in a vortex to a nandina bush under the tree. It looked like a cedar waxwing tornado.

Now, since I've moved, my yaupons are much smaller so I don't notice any hoards of waxwings doing their business. I usually see them now whenever I hear their mournful song. I'll look up in the bare trees and sure enough I'll see a flock of them. Often this time of year I can also see them doing a little dance right off of the treetops. I think they are eating gnats or some flying insect.
gldno1
15 years ago
paul, how lucky you were to have had that many. I just want to see one here!

I knew the mocking birds would do that but didn't know robins would.
christie_sw_mo
15 years ago
I would love to see that. Sounds like something that would be on a nature show.

I haven't checked my Chicago Luster for a few days to see if the berries are still there. It isn't planted very close to the house so I think when the birds do finally decide to eat them, I will miss it.

Cedar Waxwings visited us.

Comments (6)

helenh

christie_sw_mo

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