I know my backyard birds – the regular visitors, the bluebirds, finches, chickadees, cardinals and other year round residents – but I am always excited to see newcomers and visitors. On several occasions, always in the spring, I have had a flock of cedar waxwings clinging to the branches high in the trees in the back yard.
I wish they would visit more often. They are spectacular birds, but we’ll take them when we can get them.
Cedar waxwings are more of a northern bird, but live year-round in parts of Virginia. While waxwings prefer berries, they will dine on insects when necessary, before the berries arrive. They inhabit areas with open woodlands, the edges of swamps and forests and orchards. I suspect my visiting flock was moving north on their way through town and stopped to rest in my yard.
Cedar waxwings are about the size of a cardinal. They have crests like a cardinal and handsome colorations with pale to lemon yellow bellies and a matching band of yellow at the tip of the square tail. The rest of the plumage is gray to brown. A black mask edged in white extends from their beak and surrounds the eyes. They have waxy red tips on the secondary wing feathers.
The waxwings have one brood per year, sometimes two, with 4 to 6 eggs per nest.
Once threatened, their numbers are now stabilizing and even increasing due to expanded habitat.
Hurry back cedar waxwings. I’ll watch for you again next spring.