Andrew is a “new” bird watcher. He accepted the challenge of identifying the various birds in his neighborhood a year or so ago. He now has moved to the country and there are more birds to identify there, a lot more. The other day he took a walk with the dog and with his Merlin Bird Identification app on his phone set to listen for bird songs. He found he was surrounded by about 15 different species, one being Cedar Waxwings.

Cedar Waxwings are one of the most colorful birds we have. The Cornell Bird Lab describes them this way: “…brown, gray, and lemon-yellow, accented with a subdued crest, rakish black mask, and brilliant-red wax droplets on the wing feathers”. The tips of the tail feathers are usually yellow but if the bird has been feeding on the fruits from a honeysuckle bush the yellow turns to orange.

Waxwings feed on berries, and as you would guess from the name, cedar tree “berries” are one of their favorites. The berry sits in the stomach of the bird for about 10 minutes and is then pooped out. The berry surrounds a seed and when the berry is dissolved the seed coat is weakened by the stomach juices of the bird so that now the young tree can sprout surrounded by bird-poop fertilizer.

This process has two outcomes. First, it spreads young cedars everywhere and in return the increase in cedars in Nebraska may account for the fact that the number of waxwings is also on the increase. One helps the other.

In an earlier column I talked about cowbirds laying their eggs in other bird’s nests. If they do this with waxwings it doesn’t end well. The waxwings feed the cowbird chick the high fruit diet they live on, but the cowbirds can’t survive on fruit, so they starve to death! The high fruit diet can also affect the waxwing. If the fruit has started to rot and ferment the birds can actually get drunk, and even die from alcohol poisoning.

A second problem the birds have are the berries from cotoneaster shrubs and crabapple trees. Both plants produce cyanogenic glycosides, which are poisonous. If there is a late winter cold spell these trees increase the density of the glycosides in the berries to the point that they become toxic to the waxwings.

Waxwings form large flocks in the spring and fall. Two spring reports from Lincoln County are of one flock numbering in the thousands and a second flock consisting of “hundreds and hundreds”. As noted earlier the population of cedar waxwings is on the increase. This may be related to the increase in cedar trees as well as the various fruit bearing plants that people plant as landscape foliage.

Waxwings are late breeders who start nesting in mid-June. They will lay 2 – 6 eggs that will hatch 12 days later. The young birds will grow quickly and be ready to leave the nest 16 days later allowing time for a second brood before summer ends.

Andrew may be somewhat new to bird watching but he has taught this old bird watcher a trick about the Merlin Identification app that I didn’t know. I’m now anxious to turn my phone onto the “listen” mode of the app and find out what birds are around that I’m not seeing. Thanks Andrew.