Birds · Passeriformes · Bombycillidae

Cedar Waxwing

Bombycilla cedrorum

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The cedar waxwing is an elegant bird with silky brown plumage, a black mask and a pointed crest, with waxy red tips on the wing feathers. It feeds almost entirely on fruit, and that diet shapes its whole life: it breeds late in summer, when the berries ripen, and moves in nomadic flocks following the fruiting.

Weight

30 g – 56 g

Size

14 cm – 17 cm

Lifespan

8 years

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

In pairs

Usually lives in pairs, sometimes for life.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

Temperate forestGrasslandHerbivore Diurnal In pairs Bird Temperate forest Grassland

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Fun facts

GeneralA group will pass berries from bill to bill along a branch.
It passes food from bill to bill: flocks perched in a row along a branch pass a berry from one bird to the next until one of them eats it, a social behaviour with no clear equivalent in other birds.
It can get drunk: when it eats fermented berries it takes in enough alcohol to become disoriented, and in some years dazed waxwings are picked up beneath the rowans in towns.
The tail tip of some individuals is orange instead of yellow: the change is caused by a pigment from an introduced exotic honeysuckle, and appears only in birds that grew up eating its fruit.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)
Habitat & environment: Fruiting woodland, copses and gardens
Size at birth: Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent
Sexual maturity: 12 months
Gestation / incubation: 14 days
Litter / clutch size: 4

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombycilla_cedrorum