Cedar waxwings have returned to Kelowna

Left:  Cedar waxwing I photographed February 28 in Kelowna, BC.
Right:  Eggs and chicks of a cedar waxwing photographed August 2017 in Creston, BC.

My first spring outing, a week ago today, brought me to a Kelowna park bursting with bird life.  The most active area, by far, was a mountain ash tree loaded with berries that was the star attraction for robins, house finches, and waxwings.

I have seen cedar waxwings in Texas, Alberta, and across southern BC but I didn't know their range was throughout most of North America (up to the territories), all of Mexico, and most of Central America.  You can see the range map here.  I had always assumed that they always migrated North but it seems that they are year-round residents throughout much of southern Canada.  I imagine this is not true for all of them as northern residents would migrate further north during breeding.  I would be interested to know what percentage of waxwings are year-round residents.

I rarely see cedar waxwings hanging about on cedar trees, which makes me wonder how they got their name.  The "Cedar" part of their moniker comes from one of their favourite foods - the cedar berry - which is actually an edible cone of Eastern Red Cedars (Juniperus virginiana) which is actually part of the juniper family of trees.  The waxwing name comes from the red waxy secretions that the bird produces on the ends of their wings.  The older the bird, the more red tips there are.  There is an interesting article on the subject here.

Isn't that interesting?

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com