Cedar Waxwing Bombycilia cedrorum

All The Birds Of North America: Cedar Waxwing Bombycilia cedrorum

In winter, this sleek-looking bird travels in large flocks, lisping noisily. Cedar Waxwings often alight en masse in an orchard, where they make quick work of the fruit growing there; within a few hours, they move on to a different neighborhood or grove of trees and start all over again. In the West, this species sometimes occurs with the Bohemian Waxwing (B. garrulus), which is similar but larger and grayer overall.

Identification Sleek bird with soft brown upperparts and breast, and bold mask through eyes; wings gray with hard, red, waxy tips on inner feathers; belly yellowish; tail dove-gray with yellow tip.

Voice A thin, high, lisped ssseee or tseee tseee tseeee.

Habitat Orchards, residential areas, and open woodlands, especially with fruit trees.

Range Breeds from SE. Alaska and British Columbia to Newfoundland, south to N. California, Virginia, and in mountains to Georgia. Winters through most of United States, but absent from high mountains.