December 10, 2008 | 
Author 
Newsflash: A flock of Cedar Waxwings recently stopped at the Birder’s Lounge Habitat Megastore. Water, berries, and communal bathing were among the items selected by the flock. Most of the flock also chose nearby perches to rest after their shopping spree.
A few days ago, I had the guilty pleasure of sitting in my own back yard for an entire morning. As the colder weather descends, so do the birds. This flock of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) landed on a spot in my backyard that is always wet. I took advantage of this wet soil situation by planting a Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera), which loves wet soil, is evergreen in my area (Zone 8a), and provides berries that birds go ga-ga for.
The water provides a ground-level, natural-ish way for birds to drink and bathe.
The nearby Wax Myrtle is (or was) loaded with berries, providing some of the Cedar Waxwing’s primary source of food:
After a meal, a drink of water, and a quick bath, there’s nothing like a safe perch to rest:
Cedar Waxwings are not only handsome, they are highly sociable. In addition to traveling in flocks, they exhibit a neat feeding behavior. While gobbling berries – if one bird is full, it will continue to pluck berries, passing the berries to other hungry birds.1 That is so sweet! It is also a great example of how a wild creature naturally behaves in a way that helps to ensure the survival of the species, outside of procreating. Words like “teamwork,” and “sharing,” come to mind. If they can do it, we humans can do it!
Until now, I have thought that the red tips on the secondary feathers were simply the feather color. Nope. It turns out that this red color really is a waxy substance formed from the shafts of the feathers. Hence the name. 
2
By the looks of the range map, just about everyone in America should be able to catch a glimpse of this pretty bird:
Global Range: >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)
Global Range Comments: BREEDS: southeastern Alaska east to Newfoundland and south to northern California, northern Utah, western Oklahoma, southern Illinois, northern Alabama, northern Georgia, and northwestern South Carolina. WINTERS: locally from southern Canada and the northern U.S. south to central Panama, irregularly to the Bahamas and Greater Antilles, casually to northern South America.3 4
I’ll leave you with a quote from an old bird guide, printed in 1910! Some of the species accounts have some interesting comments that give a sense of the prevailing sentiments and expressions of the time. The entry for Cedar Waxwing includes the following excerpt:
…They are very tame and allow anyone to almost touch them while they are feeding or sitting upon their nests.
Source: Bird Guide, Part 2: Land Birds East of the Rockies, From Parrots to Bluebirds, ©1909 by Chas. K. Reed, written by Chester A. Reed
- Birds of Texas, 2007, written by K. Arnold and G. Kennedy ↩
- The Behavior of Texas Birds, 2002, written by Kent Rylander ↩
- Ridgely, R.S., T.F. Allnutt, T. Brooks, D.K. McNicol, D.W. Mehlman, B.E. Young, and J.R. Zook. 2003. Digital Distribution Maps of the Birds of the Western Hemisphere, version 1.0. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, USA. ↩
- Data provided by NatureServe in collaboration with Robert Ridgely, James Zook, The Nature Conservancy – Migratory Bird Program, Conservation International – CABS, World Wildlife Fund – US, and Environment Canada – WILDSPACE. ↩
Posted in Birding
[...] One of the best ways to get birds to come to your yard is to grow plants that tempt them with their favored winter feasts, as Amber Coakley does in Waxwings flock to habitat megastore. [...]
I love Cedar Waxwings and being a photographer,I really want to capture them. I wish I had a back yard like yours and I would be a happy camper!
You created a pefect environment for them and now they’re rewarding you.
Thanks for sharing your information and your beautiful photos.
I’m still working on the bird-habitat I’m creating in my yard. It hurt to cut down three messy, mealy, apple-trees (that attracted squirrels and wasps), but I’ve replaced them many times over with all sorts of native trees & bushes that the birds will love…once they get established. I’ll have to look up your myrtle and see how well it does in south-central Colorado! Somehow I’m thinking something that likes 8a won’t much care for Zone 4. LOL
Wonderful report and photo. I remember exactly when and where I saw my first flock of cedar waxwings. What a treat!
An aside…can anyone explain to me what a non-breeding resident is? Don’t all birds breed?
Hide-I hope you get to see them some day. The flocks I’ve seen are always glittering with color, and they have a high-pitched sound they make – I don’t even know how to describe it.
Beverly-I know that the wax myrtle is not native to Colorado…but, the blue spruce i planted 2 seasons ago is not native to Texas, either! I don’t have to worry about the spruce surviving the winter – it’s the summer I worry about. So far, so good – it’s still a “baby” tree.
Vickie-Maybe you could better describe the sound that a flock of cedar waxwings make. I know it when I hear it. I also found the answer to your question at the Global Raptor Information Network (GRIN)-I am learning too!
Here are their definitions:
Permanent resident: A breeding species present throughout the year.
Breeding: Nesting documented or very probable. (equivalent to “Breeding migrant” in the European and African literature).
Non-breeding: Resident only during the non-breeding period of the year. (equivalent to “Non-breeding migrant” in the European and African literature).
Migrant: Occurs in passage to breeding or non-breeding areas.
Visitor (= Casual): Scarce, but of regular, expected occurrence; occurs annually.
Vagrant (= Accidental): Rare and unexpected; does not occur annually.
Extinct: Extirpated.
Over twenty years ago, as I was home by myself, a flock of cedar wax wings came for a visit. I had never seen such a bird, much less a flock. I looked them up, and read that they were solitary birds, and did not travel in flocks! I thought that I must have witnessed something very strange indeed…perhaps a dream? Anyways… thanks for the pictures, and I can safely say today, after seeing them, that indeed, it was the spectacular vision that I DID see.