WAXWINGS IN WINTER BY NORA, VICTORIA, B.C.

Cedar Waxwings live here on Vancouver Island, B.C. in Canada. I love their rakish, black masks, which make them look like little bandits, and the amazing, brilliant-red, waxy droplets, or secretions, on the wings. The young birds don't have them, and the males are most likely to have them. Perhaps it is to attract a female.

Some waxwings have orange, not yellow, tail tips from feeding for a length of time on certain red berries, such as honeysuckle, or from the carotenoid pigments in the diet. The waxwing is one of the few birds here that can survive on fruit alone for a while. Sometimes waxwings will get drunk on too many overripe berries.

It takes the female waxwing five or six days to build her nest. She picks the nest site and is sometimes a little bit sneaky by stealing stuff from other birds’ nests to make her own nest a little quicker. Who can blame her?

Waxwings normally live for five years. The oldest one on record lived to around eight years, two months old in captivity.

When courting, males and females like to square dance. They hop toward each other, moving back and forth, and they touch their bills together. The male passes small gifts to the chosen female, such as fruit, flowers, berries, or dragonflies. The female will hop away, hop back to return the gift, then decide she just must have it and snatch it back and eat it. And if she just does not like that male, she won't dance with him.

The adults store fruit, as much as thirty cherries, in a crop pouch in their throat and then regurgitate the cherries or other fruit into the awaiting nestlings. The male will sometimes develop a little brood patch and help the female with incubation. Usually he will sit above on guard.

Waxwings are very social and have a funny habit of sitting on a long branch. If the bird at the top can reach a berry, it will pass the berry down the line to the other birds. Sometimes they do this with apple blossoms. These talkative birds love to share, to be in groups, and to give gifts. What a great bird to hang out with.

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