Cedar Waxwing

The Cedar Waxwing is a smooth, silky-plumaged bird that travels in nomadic flocks following fruiting trees and shrubs across much of North America. Its feathers show a soft gradient from warm brown on the head and chest to pale gray on the wings and back, with a pale yellow belly, and are famous for the small, waxy red droplet-like tips on some wing feathers that give the species its name. A bright yellow band across the tip of the tail feathers is another signature feature.

Size and Shape

Feathers are sleek and smooth-edged with little visible barring, giving the plumage a uniform, silky appearance; the crest feathers on the head are elongated and pointed.

Color and Pattern

• Head and breast feathers: warm brown, fading to gray on the back and wings
• Belly feathers: pale yellow
• Tail feathers: gray-brown with a bright yellow terminal band
• Secondary wing feathers: often tipped with small, waxy red appendages, though not every individual shows these

Distinguishing from Similar Species

The combination of a silky, unbarred texture, yellow tail band, and waxy red wing-tip droplets (when present) is unique to waxwings; no other North American songbird shares this exact combination. Bohemian Waxwing feathers are grayer overall with a rusty undertail, distinguishing them from the more uniformly brownish Cedar Waxwing.

Sexes look similar, both showing the warm brown head and chest fading to gray, a black mask, and a yellow-tipped tail; the waxy red tips on the wing feathers develop with age and are more prevalent and pronounced in older birds. Juveniles are duller and streaked below, lacking the smooth adult pattern and often lacking waxy tips altogether. Adults undergo a complete molt after the breeding season.

Cedar Waxwings breed across southern Canada and the northern United States, and range more broadly across the continental US in winter, tracking the availability of fruiting trees and shrubs. The species is highly nomadic, with movements driven more by food supply than by fixed migratory routes, and can appear irregularly wherever berry crops are abundant.

This species feeds heavily on fruit and berries year-round, supplementing its diet with insects, especially during the breeding season, and often takes insects in flight over water. Waxwings are highly social, traveling and feeding in tight flocks that move together between fruiting trees, sometimes passing berries beak-to-beak along a perched line of birds during courtship. Their call is a high, thin, trilled whistle, and they build a cup nest in trees, often nesting later in the season than many other songbirds to coincide with summer fruit abundance.