Cedar Waxwing adult
The Cedar Waxwing seems a most improbable bird. The smooth sleekness of its plumage, so different from most birds, looks almost unnatural. Waxwings defend little or no nesting territory; sometimes more than 20 pairs may nest in a single acre. In situations where waxwings nest in a cluster, the young may all fledge within two days, suggesting that social groups somehow synchronize nesting.
Cedar Waxwing adult
This Cedar Waxwing is apparently a young adult, because it lacks the red waxy droplets present on the tips of the wing feathers of older adults. The number of waxy tips increases with age.
One of the last songbirds to start nesting in summer, Cedar Waxwings wait until fruits start ripening. Based on winter flock behaviors, some birds may pair off during winter or even remain paired through the year. Pairs remain together at least for the entire breeding season.
Waxwings appear to select their mates from within their social flocks, each preferring the oldest mate it can attract. With age comes experience: the more years a bird has lived, the more likely it is to have survived and learned from dangerous situations. Waxwings grow more effective at attracting older mates as they, too, get older. The red waxy feather tips that give them their name are signals of a bird’s age and maturity, and on average, are more numerous in older birds. Birds with the most red tips pair off first, leaving those with fewer red tips to one another.
Waxwings begin courting within winter and migratory flocks. Two birds first hop toward one another on a perch, sometimes touching bills, in a ritual called courtship hopping. The male offers a berry, petal, or insect; if the female doesn’t find him suitable, she ignores his overtures. If she does approve of him, she hops toward him and they pass the item back and forth, repeating until the female eats it up.
A flock of Cedar Waxwings feeds on fruit in late winter. These sociable birds associate in flocks throughout the year, although flocks are largest during winter. Even while pairs are nesting, they may join small groups when heading to fruiting shrubs or trees.
The female seems to choose the nest site, often at the edge of a wooded area or in an isolated tree or shrub in an old field. The nest is usually placed in the fork of a horizontal branch or at the trunk, at just about any height. Both birds gather twigs, grasses, cattail down, mosses, string, horsehair, dead leaves, bark, ferns, flowers, pine needles, and man-made materials such as pieces of cloth, paper, or string. They sometimes take their nest materials from other waxwing nests. The female weaves the bulky cup together. Construction takes five to six days during which the birds make as many as 2,500 or more individual trips to the nest. Females begin laying within a day or two of completing the nest, one egg early each morning.
Cowbirds seldom parasitize waxwing nests, perhaps because the waxwing’s late nesting season begins after the peak of cowbird egg-laying. If a cowbird egg does appear in a nest before incubation begins, the waxwings usually toss it out; in the rare cases that a cowbird egg is accepted, there is no evidence that the cowbird survives to fledge. Waxwings feed their young so much fruit that the diet doesn’t have enough protein to sustain a growing cowbird.
The male feeds his mate while she incubates, bringing nearly all the food to her and the chicks for the first day or two after they hatch. He brings her mostly fruit, but as soon as hatching occurs, he switches to bringing insects almost exclusively for two or three days, visiting three or four times per hour.
The extraordinarily sociable nature of waxwings is exemplified in one endearing habit: birds pass food items, including flower petals and berries, from one bird to the next. This usually occurs between pairs, but three or more may pass an item back and forth before one finally swallows it. As two birds mouth a berry, especially a frozen one, they may soften it for digestion as well as cement their social bonds, so pairing off in winter may be as good for their stomachs as their hearts.
A waxwing pair exchanges a berry. In their main courtship display, the male and female pass a berry, insect, or flower petal back and forth with a hop. Sometimes the item is inedible, or no object is passed, but the birds still touch bills symbolically.
A Cedar Waxwing holds nest material. The male and female bring material to the nest site, but she does most of the building. Waxwings may steal nest materials from other birds’ nests, including those of Eastern Kingbirds, Baltimore Orioles, American Robins, and Yellow Warblers.
These Cedar Waxwing eggs will be incubated for 11 to 13 days. Late nesters, waxwings lay eggs from June through early August, sometimes still raising young as late as September. This timing likely coincides with fruit availability.
Immediately after hatching, waxwing nestlings seem barely able to hold their heads up, bright red mouths agape only for feedings. The female broods them almost constantly for the first three days or so, as the male brings food. The nestlings gape when they hear a sound, sense the nest vibrating, or are suddenly shaded, all signs that a parent has just alighted with food.
Even on their first day out of the egg, the chicks can swallow berries whole, regurgitated by adults. The parents may bring as many as 12 dogwood berries or eight chokecherries in a single visit to the nest. They press a berry or insect into the nestling’s throat. If the chick doesn’t immediately swallow it (a sign that it’s not very hungry), they will take it out and feed it to another nestling. Within four days the female spends half the day off the nest, helping her mate gather food.
The nestlings’ eyes open when they’re six or seven days old, and within two or three days they start to vocalize, perch more steadily, and stretch and preen. Now the straw-like sheaths covering their developing feathers rapidly disintegrate, their feathers open, and the female stops brooding. At two weeks, their juvenile plumage is complete except for their stubby little tails.
Brooding. A female waxwing broods her nestlings. For the first three days after they hatch, she spends 90 percent of daylight hours on the nest. Throughout the incubation and brooding period, the female receives food for herself and the young from the male.
6–7 days old. A parent feeds a honeysuckle berry to one of its nestlings, whose eyes have just opened. For the first few days after they hatch the male waxwing feeds them insects; after that, both parents feed them increasing amounts of fruit.
14 days old. With bright red gapes accentuated by pinkish-purple flanges in the corners of their bills, nestlings beg from their parent. By now they are well feathered with distinctive brownish streaks and mottling on their bellies. Their wing feathers are well developed, although not yet adult length.
Waxwing young usually fledge when about 15 or 16 days old. The male continues to feed them for six to ten days longer; the female will do so only if she’s not re-nesting. Within a few days, the family starts associating with a flock. By summer’s end, large waxwing flocks will be swirling through the air from one good feeding spot to another, feasting on the late summer cornucopia of fruit and swarming insects.
An adult Cedar Waxwing brings fruit for its two begging fledglings. The young remain near the nest area for several days. They’re capable only of short flights at first, and depend on meals from their parents.
This waxwing fledgling’s tail is tipped with orange, rather than the typical yellow. The orange color is due to a red pigment from the berries of an introduced species of honeysuckle. If a young bird is fed many of these berries while its tail feathers are still growing, the tips of the feathers will be orange.
This juvenile waxwing has found a crabapple bonanza! A short time after leaving the nest, juvenile Cedar Waxwings start forming small flocks with other juveniles and eventually become proficient at flycatching and feeding on fruit.