Fashionable and Social, Winter Waxwings Present a Great ID Problem

While you hear a refrain of high-pitched see! notes overhead, count on a great time: A rambunctious flock of waxwings is on its manner. Extremely social birds that seem to don’t have any sense of non-public house, North America’s two waxwing species—Bohemian and Cedar—additionally look very related. Telling these elegant birds aside makes for a wonderful ID problem.

Through the breeding season, location can present an preliminary intestine test. Cedar Waxwings are predominant all through the northern continental United States and southern Canada, inhabiting open areas or forest edges. Bohemian Waxwings are discovered principally in boreal forests and muskeg in Alaska and western Canada, with some information within the northwestern United States, too.

However the species overlap in elements of their ranges, and that widespread floor grows in the course of the winter, when each rove far and extensive in quest of meals. Due to their fruit-heavy weight-reduction plan, you’re not prone to discover both species at a fowl feeder, however you may encounter them at any fruiting tree of their vary, even decorative timber in yards and parking tons.

Through the winter months, Cedar Waxwings vary additional south than Bohemians on common, exhibiting up all through southern Canada, the continental United States, Mexico, and generally Central America. Whereas Bohemian Waxwings are typically scarce and irregular south of the Canadian border, they’ll change into regionally quite a few within the northern Rocky Mountains east to northern Minnesota. In years when meals is scarce, they might wander southward alongside the Rockies or into the Midwest, New York, New England, and barely even additional south. These southward-straying Bohemians generally be a part of up with flocks of the extra widespread Cedars.

While you come throughout a flock with each species, dimension is likely to be the obvious differentiator. Cedar Waxwings are smaller, related in dimension to a big sparrow. Bohemians are practically an inch longer and twice as heavy; in flight, they might give the impression of a European Starling. Nevertheless, dimension may deceive. A Cedar Waxwing might look bigger when flying solo or when fluffed up in opposition to the chilly.

Sure plumage traits supply diagnostic identification factors, too. Bohemians tackle a cooler grey tone general with a red-orange face, whereas Cedars seem sandy or tan. Bohemians even have extra intricate patterning on their wings, with extra white marks and a yellow streak operating down their main wing feathers. Lastly, and maybe most tellingly, Bohemians have rust-colored undertail coverts—the feathers that meet the tail on the fowl’s underside—whereas Cedars’ undertail coverts are white. 

The sexes look related in each species, however male Cedar and Bohemian Waxwings each are likely to have extra intensive black of their chins than the females do. Males even have greater waxy crimson suggestions—sure, it is really a waxy secretion—on their feathers than females, on common. Word that each options will be tough to discern within the subject. In the meantime, juveniles of each species are grayer and streaky, and don’t tackle their signature wingtips till they mature. It’s not completely clear what the wax wings are for, however older birds have extra of them, so it’s potential that they sign the well being, age, and social standing of birds to different members of the flock.

The 2 birds sound related and sometimes an identical, however with follow you may normally differentiate them by voice. Cedar Waxwings make extraordinarily high-pitched whistles and trills, which might sound virtually insectlike. Bohemian Waxwings typically make a extra guttural rattling trill, like a moist metallic whistle. 

Because the winter approaches and migratory birds head south, the potential for a waxwing sighting offers a supply of pleasure and motivation to exit birding within the chilly. Hopefully you’ll be rewarded this winter with alternatives to see and research each waxwing species, get pleasure from their antics, and acquire a deeper appreciation of those charismatic birds.

This piece initially ran within the Winter 2022 challenge as “What’s That Waxwing?”. To obtain our print journal, change into a member by making a donation at the moment.