Bohemian Waxwing

The Bohemian Waxwing is a striking, crested songbird of the northern boreal forest, closely related to the Cedar Waxwing but larger and grayer overall. It breeds across the far north of North America and Eurasia and is famous for irruptive winter movements southward in search of berry crops, sometimes appearing in large, nomadic flocks far outside its normal range.

Flight feathers: the secondaries bear small, flattened, waxy red tips resembling drops of sealing wax, a feature unique to waxwings. Tail feathers: gray with a broad yellow (sometimes orange-tinged) band across the tip. Body feathers: soft and silky, overall soft gray-brown with a black mask through the eye, a pointed crest, and chestnut undertail coverts. Compared to the Cedar Waxwing, Bohemian Waxwing feathers are grayer (less brownish-buff) and the undertail coverts are rich chestnut rather than white, while the wing shows additional white and yellow markings on the primaries.

Sexes are similar, with males sometimes showing slightly more extensive waxy tips. Adults are silky gray overall with a black throat patch, a black mask bordered narrowly in white, a pointed crest, and chestnut undertail coverts; wings show white and yellow patches on the primaries in addition to the red waxy secondary tips. Juveniles are duller and streakier, lacking or showing reduced waxy tips, and gaining full adult plumage after their first molt. There is no distinct seasonal plumage difference in adults, but the number and size of waxy tips can increase with age.

Bohemian Waxwings breed in open coniferous and mixed boreal forest across northern North America, Scandinavia, and Siberia. In winter, they become highly nomadic, moving unpredictably in search of trees and shrubs bearing fruit, sometimes irrupting far south of their breeding range in years of poor berry crops farther north.

This species feeds heavily on tree and shrub fruits in fall and winter, and switches to catching flying insects during the breeding season, sometimes sallying out from a perch in flycatcher-like fashion. It nests solitarily in conifers, building a bulky cup of twigs and lichen. Highly social outside the breeding season, Bohemian Waxwings travel and forage in tight, wheeling flocks, giving a high, thin trilling call similar to but harsher than the Cedar Waxwing's.