Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Cedar Waxwings




I saw this little fruit tree full of Cedar Waxwings yesterday during my walk on the East End. I can always hear these birds before I see them. They travel in flocks and they sing together with a high pitched yet soft, shreee shreee! I once found a dead Cedar Waxwing and plucked a few of its beautiful feathers before burying it, and I've kept the feathers in a small box at home in Woolwich. The tips of their wings really do look like they've been dipped in red wax! I love the Waxwings' black masks and streamlined heads - very slick!
from Wickepedia:
The Cedar Waxwing eats berries and sugary fruit year-round, with insects becoming an important part of the diet in the breeding season. Its fondness for the small cones of the Eastern Redcedar (a kind of juniper) gave this bird its common name.
When the end of a twig holds a supply of berries that only one bird at a time can reach, members of a flock may line up along the twig and pass berries beak to beak down the line so that each bird gets a chance to eat.


No comments: