Cedar Waxwings in Winter Garden Landscapes

The “waxwing” part of their name comes from the waxy red secretions found on the tips of the secondary flight feathers on the second segment of a bird’s wing. These colorful tips may help attract mates.

Cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum), North American natives, appear sleek and silky, clad with brown, gray, and lemon-yellow feathers. Subdued crests and rakish black masks adorn their heads.

They congregate in large flocks and roost at the tops of trees like maples, oaks, and Bradford pears. They fly in rising and falling patterns and startle easily. However, they quickly return to trees where they were feeding. Their constant call is a high thin “scree” – like whistle.

Landscape gardeners can encourage large numbers of autumn and winter cedar waxwings by planting trees from the Rose family that develop late-ripening fruit. Some of these, closely related to apples, are the pome-like fruit of hawthorns (Crataegus spp.), crabapples (Malus spp.) and Firethorn or Pyracantha (Pyracantha spp.).

• Hawthorns (plant hardiness zones 4-7) are small trees that produce white flowers in spring and bright red fruit in the autumn. Thornless cultivars, usually designated as variety inermis, are the best choices for landscape plantings. Two hawthorns noted for their overall excellence are the native selections cockspur hawthorn (Crataegus crusgalli var. inermis) and the almost thornless Princeton Sentry™ (Crataegus phaenopyrum).
• Crabapple varieties (plant hardiness zones 4-7) that are good sources of food for birds include ‘Snowdrift,’ ‘Indian Magic,’ ‘Profusion,’ ‘Adirondack,’ ‘Harvest Gold’ , ‘Prairifire,’ and ‘Ormiston Roy.’ Birds usually do not eat the fruit of a few crabapple varieties like ‘Adams,’ ‘Donald Wyman,’ and ‘Red Jewel’.
• Firethorns or Pyracantha (Pyracantha spp.) (plant hardiness zones 5 – 9) produce clusters of small white flowers in spring and berries in autumn that range from shades of red to orange or yellow. They are attractive trained as an espalier, held flat against a wall. Firethorns demonstrate a fast rate of growth, an ability to withstand drought and neglect, and disease and pest resistance.

Fruit color is not necessarily an indicator of ripeness in these pome-like fruits. During the process of ripening, apples and related fruit convert stored starch into sugar. As pome-like fruit ripen on the tree, the sugar content and flavors increase. Each variety of fruit has its own ripening and harvest time. Initially, the fruit are hard and bitter tasting. They gradually become more palatable to birds as their chemistry changes after freezing and thawing several times. The more northern the tree planting, the earlier in the calendar year this fruit appears to ripen.

Although these colorful birds feed mainly on fruit year-round, they do supplement this diet in summer with protein-rich insects often caught on the wing. In summer and autumn, cedar waxwings feed on fruit from trees such as serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.), mulberry (Morus spp.) and dogwood (Cornus spp.), and vines like honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) and bittersweet (Celastrus spp.).

Cedar waxwings are year-round residents in a broad northern band across the U.S. reaching coast to coast. Many eastern cedar waxwings overwinter in the southeastern U.S. and observers report numbers of feeding flocks in January. They gather to feast on the ripening pome-like fruit of hawthorns, crabapples and pyracantha. Later in January, they go after mature berry-like drupes from holly trees (Ilex spp). Because cedar waxwings rely heavily on fruit as a food source, many may become drunk and even die from alcohol poisoning after eating these pome-like fruit if they have fermented.

A downside of the cedar waxwings’ arrival and feasting is that in their excitement many hit expanses of window glass. They apparently see reflections of the trees in the glass. There are some fatalities, but many birds are just shocked and quickly recover. There are several Window Strike Solutions including lowering window screens to darken the windows and placing decals like spider webs and bird silhouettes on the outside of the windows.

Three other prominent birds – American robins, European starlings and eastern bluebirds – join cedar waxwings in eating late-ripening fruit. All three birds, contrary to popular belief, are year-round residents in approximately the same areas as cedar waxwings. Robins and bluebirds eat fruit right off the trees; starlings pick up fruit dropped below trees.

Many times migrants of their own kind flying from northern areas after New Year’s Day join them. Robins and starlings, like the cedar waxwings, gang together in flocks, while bluebirds are more solitary. Robins and bluebirds are cousins and native to North America. Starlings are European, introduced to New York City between 1890 and 1891.