Waxwings!

A Cedar Waxwing looks around for available fruit.

Yesterday, I noticed a few Cedar Waxwings flying about the trees on the path leading towards Explore the Wild just above the Lemur House. I watched quietly as one bird preened, looked around a bit and then took off with a purpose in the direction of the Lemur House.

“There must be more of these birds around,” I said to myself, “and there must be some ripe berries somewhere over by the lemurs.”

Walking down the path I saw what the bird, and I, were looking for. About a half-dozen of the immaculately plumaged birds were fluttering about in the tangle of trees and vines just off the path. There was a honeysuckle vine in amongst the tangle and the waxwings were picking off the few black berries that remained on the plant.

Never a hair out of place.

Where there’s one waxwing, there’s usually more. I later saw these birds join up with ten or so more of their kind, fly a few circles above the Wetlands, and descend on a pair of small hollies in Explore the Wild. More about that in a few days.

Enjoy the pictures.

2 responses to Waxwings!

    • Greg Dodge says:

      Male and females are pretty much the same as far as plumage. However, if you were to push me into answering one way or the other I’d say that both of these birds are males due to the amount of black on the chin (under the bill), more in males, less in females.

Leave a Reply to Greg DodgeCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.