The waxwings are three species of passerine classified in the genus Bombycilla. They are pinkish-brown and pale grey with distinctive smooth plumage in which many body feathers are not individually visible, a black and white eyestripe, a crest, a square-cut tail and pointed wings. Some of the wing feathers have red tips, the resemblance of which to sealing wax gives these birds their common name. According to most authorities, this is the only genus placed in the family Bombycillidae, although sometimes the family is extended to include related taxa that are more usually included in separate families: silky flycatchers (Ptiliogonatidae (e.g. Phainoptila)), Hypocolius (Hypocoliidae), Hylocitrea (Hylocitreidae), palmchats (Dulidae) and the Hawaiian honeyeaters (Mohoidae). There are three species: the Bohemian waxwing ( B. garrulus), the Japanese waxwing ( B. japonica) and the cedar waxwing ( B. cedrorum).
Waxwings are not long-distance migrants, but move nomadically outside the breeding season. Waxwings mostly feed on insects in summer and fruit in winter; at times of year when fruit and insects are unavailable, they may also feed on sap, buds, and flowers. They catch insects by gleaning through foliage or in mid-air. They often nest near water, the female building a loose nest at the fork of a branch, well away from the trunk of the tree. She also incubates the eggs, the male bringing her food to the nest, and both sexes help rear the young. Waxwings appear in art and have been mentioned in literature.
Taxonomy
The waxwings are the sole genus in the family Bombycillidae.
In the past, some other related birds were also included in the family, including the
(now
Ptiliogonatidae), the
grey hypocolius (now
Hypocoliidae), the
palm chat (now
Dulidae), and the
hylocitrea (now
Hylocitreidae); these are all now treated, along with the
Mohoidae, in the superfamily
Bombycilloidea.
Species
Etymology
Bombycilla, the genus name, is Vieillot's attempt at
Latin for "silktail", translating the German name
Seidenschwänze. Vieillot thought that
motacilla, Latin for
, was derived from
mota for "move" and
cilla, which he thought meant "tail"; however,
Motacilla actually combines
motacis, a mover, with the
diminutive suffix
-illa. He then combined this "
cilla" with the Latin
bombyx, meaning silk.
Description
Waxwings are characterised by soft silky plumage. They have unique red tips to the secondary feathers of the wing (most obvious in adult
Bohemian waxwing and
cedar waxwing, often absent in
Japanese waxwing, and sometimes absent in immatures of the other two), where the shafts extend beyond the barbs; these tips look like sealing wax, and give the group its common name.
The legs are short and strong, and the wings are pointed. The male and female have the same plumage. All three species have mainly pale grey-brown plumage, a black line through the eye, and black under the chin, a square-ended tail with a red or yellow tip, and a pointed crest. The bill, eyes, and feet are blackish. The adults moult between August and November, but may suspend their moult and continue after migration.
[RSPB Handbook of British Birds (2014). .] Calls are high-pitched, buzzing or trilling monosyllables.
Behaviour
Diet
These are arboreal birds that breed in northern
taiga.
Their main foods are insects, which they eat in spring and summer (and if available, at other times of the year) and fruit, which they eat from early summer (
Fragaria,
mulberry, and
Amelanchier) through late summer and autumn (
raspberry,
blackberry,
cherry, and
honeysuckle berries) into late autumn and winter (
rowan,
cotoneaster,
viburnum fruit,
,
rose hips,
dogwood berries,
juniper cones,
, and
mistletoe berries); the juicy berries of rowans are the most important.
They pluck fruit from a perch or occasionally while hovering. In spring they replace fruit with sap, buds, and flowers. In warmer periods of the year they catch many insects by gleaning or by flycatching in midair, and often nest near water where flying insects are abundant.
Reproduction
Waxwings also choose nest sites in places with rich supplies of fruit and breed late in the year to take advantage of summer ripening. However, they may start courting as early as the winter. Pairing includes a ritual in which mates pass a fruit or small inedible object back and forth several times until one eats it (if it is a fruit). After this they may copulate. Many pairs may nest close together in places with good food supplies, and pairs do not defend a territory (perhaps the reason waxwings have no true
bird song), but a bird may attack intruders, perhaps to guard its mate. Both birds gather nest materials, but the female does most of the construction, usually on a horizontal limb or in a crotch well away from the tree trunk, at any height. She makes a loose, bulky nest of twigs, grass, and
lichen, which she lines with fine grass, moss, and
pine needles and may camouflage with dangling pieces of grass, flowers, lichen, and moss. The female incubates, fed by the male on the nest, but once the eggs hatch, both birds feed the young.
Migration
They are not true long-distance
bird migration, but wander erratically outside the breeding season and move south from their summer range in winter. In years with poor berry crops, huge numbers can irrupt well beyond their normal winter range, often in large flocks of hundreds or occasionally even thousands.
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