Recently I sat outside to take in the sky and the birds. In no time, I spotted a small flock of Cedar Waxwings flying among a row of deciduous trees bordering my backyard. "Spotted" is perhaps the best verb to use, because I couldn't locate any one of their number for any length of time. As a group, they were quite active, flying out from the treetops to catch an insect and then in among the leaves again. Luckily, the shedding leaves allowed for some open viewing spaces. Known as berry eaters, waxwings also eat insects during the warm seasons.
I tried again and again to capture one's image with no luck. So, finally I decided to take a "scatter shot" approach and simply aimed the lens to the top of a beech tree where a couple birds had just flown. Sure enough, on checking this photo, I found two birds! The one was not discernible as a waxwing (you couldn't identify any specific features), but then I found this fellow or gal, showing just enough for a proper ID. He or she had a soft brown head and neck feathers blending into gray wing feathers and a lovely yellow belly. Of course the more conspicuous features include the black mask and the waxy red secretion tipping the secondary feathers.
Various theories had been offered for this red wax, and I just discovered a blogger who provides a thorough and interesting update on the question. Since I'm too lazy to summarize, why don't you check out this post by Matthew L. Miller, which provides numerous crisp images of Cedar Waxwings (not something you get here--ha!)
So until next time . . . Keep birds in your heart!
https://blog.nature.org/science/2017/02/27/waxwings-really-have-wax-wings/
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