It isn’t all that uncommon to see cedar waxwings during the
winter, very likely perched in an ornamental crabapple tree or
mountain ash tree feasting upon the dried frozen fruit.
How well I remember boyhood days in Kewaunee and the cedar
waxwings that nearly gave my dad fits when they attacked his
prize yellow sweet cherry tree. In fact they consumed such a
large percentage of the scrumptious cherries every summer that
eventually, in frustration, he cut the tree down.
What we’ve always enjoyed about these birds during the cold
season is their unpredictability in appearing when you least
expect them. These strongly gregarious creatures during the
winter months roam the countryside in search of food and when
they locate it they remain until they’ve consumed all they can.
Whenever fellow birdwatchers report cedar waxwings in winter
we immediately suggest that they take a very close look at the
birds to make doubly sure they aren’t Bohemian waxwings.
Carefully examine their wings to see if they have white wing
bars. If you can, look at their under-tail coverts. They are
rusty-brown on a Bohemian waxwing compared to the cedar waxwing’s
that are a light dull yellow.
It’s ideal if you can scrutinize a Bohemian waxwing with the
use of a spotting scope. Then you should be able to pick out
their grayish underparts, very black chin, white wing bars,
yellow edges of their primary wing feathers, and their light
cinnamon-colored under-tail coverts. Talk about a Beau Brummel
of the birds!
My field records show that the first Bohemian waxwings I ever
saw were along the Lake Michigan shoreline north of Two Rivers at
the extreme north edge of the Point Beach State Forest. I was
helping to take a Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 30, 1958. It was
4 p.m. and the sun was already very low in the west when we
lucked onto them.
The exact words of the entry I made in my Peterson Field Guide
To the Birds reads, "9 spotted north of Point Beach State
Forest on Dec.30, 1958 – Two Rivers Christmas Bird Count – seen
at about 4 p.m. with late afternoon sun on them -- beautiful!!!
They were feasting on some wild grapes."
Around 20 years later Charlotte and I went to the Leigh Yawkey
Woodson Art Museum in Wausau to see their great annual Birds In
Art show which, that year, was honoring Roger Tory Peterson,
number-one guru of American birders at the time. I took my
original Peterson Field Guide To the Birds to be autographed and
I can vividly remember how he paged through the book to read some
of my notes written in the margins. He especially enjoyed
reading about the Bohemian waxwing sighting. Let me tell you
that I was one proud and happy Bohemian that day!
Their immaculate grooming and silky appearance have brought
about their genus name, Bombycilla. "Bombyx" in
Latin refers to silky. Their species name of garrulus is
extremely well chosen too. It was during my third sighting of
these awesome birds, March 11, 1973, that Charlotte and I were
treated to a very talkative flock of around 40. What impressed
us was their non-stop chattering, much like a babbling brook. It
wasn’t a loud song at all but rather a soft, high, metallic,
buzzy trill. What a beautiful, subtle, polite conversation they
carried on. Their relatives, the cedar waxwings, Bombycilla
cedrorum, make a more hissing, lispy, whispering sound.
That memorable little flock of Bohemian waxwings could very
well have been eating some unpicked apples in the Krowas Orchard
west of Kangaroo Lake, near to where the birds were perched.
Fruit makes up the greatest part of their winter diet and will
include rose hips, sumac fruit, kinnikinnick, deadly nightshade,
mountain ash berries, hawthorn (thornapple), dogwood fruit,
bittersweet, wild grapes, cedar and juniper berries.
There is another strong feature of the Bohemian waxwing that I
was able to closely observe and even photograph on Jan. 20, 1982,
their rather long pointed wings. I was immediately attracted to
their strong, graceful, undulating flight. This flock had been
attracted to the fruit of an ornamental crabapple tree, ambrosial
to those winter apple harvesters!
Examine the distribution maps in your bird field guide to see
the unusually large range of the cedar waxwing compared to the
relatively small one for the Bohemian waxwing. Being primarily a
northwestern bird, it is invariably during the winter months that
the Bohemians venture eastward in search of food, sometimes clear
to the northeastern maritime states.
Our friend Tom alerted us yesterday to his good scope sighting
of a lone Bohemian waxwing east of Sturgeon Bay. Now we won’t
rest easy until we can add this awesome creature to our year’s
list of extra-special birds. Perhaps the fact that my ancestors
came to this country in 1866 from what eventually became Bohemia
makes me somewhat prejudiced toward the Bohemian waxwings, one of
my top favorites.
This silky, well-groomed appearance of this cedar waxwing leads
us to call it the Beau Brummel of the bird world.
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 02/07/2004.
© Copyright 2004 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
