Cedar Waxwing

The Cedar Waxwing is an elegant, silky-plumaged songbird instantly recognized by its pointed crest, smooth blended tan-to-yellow body coloring, and a black mask outlined in white across the face. The plumage looks almost airbrushed, fading gradually from soft brown on the head and chest to pale yellow on the belly, with the tail crisply tipped in bright yellow.

Many adults show small red, waxy-looking tips on the secondary wing feathers, resembling drops of sealing wax, which give the species its name. Waxwings are highly social and are almost always encountered in flocks, moving nomadically wherever fruit is abundant.

Key field marks

• Sleek pointed crest and smooth, silky brown-to-yellow plumage
• Black mask outlined in white across the eyes
• Bright yellow tail tip
• Red, wax-like tips on some wing feathers (variable, more common in older birds)

Similar species

• Bohemian Waxwing is larger and grayer overall, with rusty (not white) undertail coverts and bold white and yellow patches in the wing; it is a more northern species with limited winter overlap.
• No other common songbird shares the waxwing's combination of crest, mask, and yellow tail band.

Cedar Waxwings breed across southern Canada and the northern half of the United States, and are found year-round or in winter across most of the lower 48 states, Mexico, and into Central America. They favor open woodlands, forest edges, orchards, parks, and residential areas planted with fruiting trees and shrubs.

Unlike most songbirds, waxwing movements are driven largely by fruit availability rather than a strict seasonal migration pattern; flocks wander widely and unpredictably in search of berry crops, sometimes staying in an area only as long as the food supply lasts.

Cedar Waxwings are highly social, traveling and feeding in tight flocks that can number from a handful to several hundred birds. They are famous for passing berries beak-to-beak along a perched row of birds, and for occasionally becoming mildly intoxicated after eating overripe, fermented fruit.

The voice is a very high, thin, buzzy trilled whistle, often the first clue to a flock's presence overhead. Diet shifts seasonally: fruit and berries dominate most of the year, but breeding birds and nestlings rely heavily on insects, often caught in short aerial sallies. Because their breeding schedule is tied to summer fruit ripening, waxwings nest later than most songbirds; the cup nest is built in a tree or shrub, and pairs typically raise two broods with three to five eggs each.