I observed several notable things this
week. The first is the the temperature made it above freezing for the
first time in at least a month. The second is that I witnessed a
flock of uncommon birds in my yard. We have a choke cherry tree in
our front yard that holds on to its fruit throughout the winter. In
past years we've enjoyed watching a grouse gorge on it's fruit in the
winter, and my dog doesn't mind sneaking a cherry or two before I can
stop her. A little after noon on Wednesday some movement on the tree
caught my eye. I was very excited to see two Cedar Waxwings eating the
cherries. This is a rarity for my yard, so I excitedly got my camera. It was a
blustery day and the birds movements were frenetic, so my photos left
something to be desired. As I watched longer, I realized there was a
whole flock of the birds perching on a beech tree on the other side
of the driveway, taking turns descending on the cherry tree a few at
a time.
It was thrilling to see a bird that I
don't see often, and a whole flock of them no less! When they had all
landed up on their beech tree perch for a rest, I took a photo so I
could try to count. There appeared to be 23 birds in all. I was
excited to add it to the list we maintain on Cornell's eBird site, and go through the data maps to see where else these
birds might have been spotted. I found two sites within 25 miles that
had reported 22 and 55 Cedar Waxwings in the past week. Perhaps this
was the same flock, or parts of it?
Today, however, as I did some more
research for this blog post, I began to look at my pictures more
closely. I am not an expert birder, however, I do think accuracy is
important when identifying species. I now believe that my flock of
waxwings were Bohemian Waxwings instead, which
is much more rare for Massachusetts. I began to question my
identification when looking at Bohemian Waxwing photos and reading
the descriptions. My waxwings were primarily gray and lacked the
white line on the forehead that is a defining identification feature
of the Cedar Waxwing. I cannot say with 100% certainty, but I now
believe my first identification was incorrect. I went back to the
eBird maps and low and behold, I am not the only one to spot a
Bohemian Waxwing in the area.
.JPG) |
| ©SBF |
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| ©SBF |
At any rate, both waxwings are social
birds that can be seen in flocks year round. They eat insects and
fleshy fruit. Their main identifying features are their crested
heads, red waxy wingtips and bright yellow tip of the tail. I think
they are some of the most beautiful birds, I was so excited to watch
them for their half hour visit to my tree!
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| What do you think? Cedar or Bohemian? ©SBF |
Part of bird identification is looking
for subtle defining features. This can take practice, and as I have
already admitted, I am no expert. Although it might take a second
look proper identification can be a fun piece of a wildlife mystery.
There are many tools available for identifying birds. Please see my
earlier post "The GBBC and Woodpeckers Galore"
for a list of digital and print resources for identification.
So, what do you think? Were they Cedar Waxwings or Bohemian Waxwings? Comment below
or e-mail me at: shareitscience@gmail.com
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| The flock in a nearby tree. ©SBF |
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| A Ruffed Grouse enjoys the cherries last winter. ©SBF |
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