Bohemian Waxwings: Exquisite Winter Visitors

Feast or famine. That is how birders describe the presence of Bohemian Waxwings as they live up to their nomadic English common name with their winter peregrinations. While almost impossible to find some years in our area, they can suddenly “irrupt” at other times from their northwest boreal forest breeding grounds and spread across the northern part of the continent. They may then spend winter with us in flocks sometimes numbering in the hundreds. These beautiful sleek creatures are well worth the wait and the search. Luckily the winter of 2025/2026 has brought an influx to the Creek 53 area.

Three species of waxwing exist worldwide with Bohemian Waxwings being Holarctic, Cedar Waxwings limited mostly to North America, and Japanese Waxwings present in eastern Asia. All are named for a unique red wax-like substance produced at the tips of their secondary wing feathers. All have smooth beige body plumage with jaunty crests, dark masks making them resemble movie superheroes, and colourful tail tips which seem to have been dipped in paint. The degree of colour in the wing area varies greatly by species as well as more subtly by age and sex.

Bohemian Waxwings lack the yellow wash present on the bellies of our other local species, the Cedar Waxwing. In addition, their undertail coverts are a dark cinnamon colour as opposed to the white present on a Cedar. Their wings also tend to be more colourful. Some Cedar Waxwings do occasionally spend the winter months with us, and mixed flocks are not uncommon. One should carefully examine any apparently single species groups for the presence of a few interlopers of the other. Both birds can easily be overlooked in flight as flight styles closely resemble the introduced European Starling.

 

Bohemian Waxwing

 

Cedar Waxwing

Although a portion of waxwing diet is comprised of insects and other arthropods during the breeding season, they switch to a high berry intake during the winter months. Mountain ash berries, cranberries, crab apples and hawthorn berries are just some of the local fruits found in our area which meet the requirements. The proliferation of the highly invasive European (Common) Buckthorn over recent decades has added a substantial food source.

Although many written articles warn of negative effects for birds eating these astringent  berries, there is very little hard scientific evidence backing up this claim. Bohemians flock to these bushes and it would be hard to imagine a plant harming an avian species needed to help its spread. More research is obviously needed. Because berries by mid-winter are often very dry, waxwings can be seen gulping down mouthfuls of snow for hydration and to help with digestion.

 

Eating Buckthorn berries

 

Hydrating with snow

 

Bohemian Waxwings are a birder/photographer’s dream. Beautiful plumage and almost
complete lack of fear of humans make them supremely photogenic and surprisingly
approachable. There is something magical about losing oneself in in the middle of a
foraging flock of these northern denizens when they make one of their irregular forays to visit us in our more southern climes.

 

Wayne Grubert
Creek 53 Resident Birder