Bombycilla cedrorum
cedar waxwing

Cedar waxwings (Bombycillia cedrorum) are found only in North America. Their breeding range extends throughout the southern half of Canada and the northern half of the United States. The winter range includes the United States, Mexico and Central America as far south as Panama. They also winter in the Caribbean region. Many birds in the northern United States and extreme southern Canada are year-round residents.

Vagrant cedar waxwings are occasionally seen in Iceland and Great Britain. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Cedar waxwings nest in open woodlands (deciduous, coniferous and mixed) or oldfield habitats. They prefer habitats with numerous small trees and shrubs for nesting and food. They frequently inhabit riparian areas, which provide nesting shrubs and trees, fruits and emerging aquatic insects, but also use farms, orchards, conifer plantations, and suburban gardens. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Cedar waxwings are sleek birds with silky plumage. They are approximately 15.5 cm in length and weigh about 32 g. Adults have a grayish-brown plumage with pale yellow on the breast and belly. The secondary wing feathers are tipped with red wax-like droplets, and the tail is square with a bright yellow band at the tip. Cedar waxwings have a crest and a black mask edged with white.

Male and female waxwings are similar in appearance, but males have a slightly darker chin patch. Females may also be slightly heavier than males during the breeding season. Juvenile cedar waxwings look similar to adults, but are greyer overall, have streaking on their underparts and a much smaller crest and lack the red tips on their secondary feathers. (Robbins, Bruun, and Zim, 1966; Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

The oldest known cedar waxwing lived 7 years in the wild. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Cedar waxwings are nomadic. Flocks of cedar waxwings move from place to place throughout the year, except during the breeding season. Some populations are also migratory. Cedar waxwings are very social. They travel in flocks, and do not defend a territory, even during the breeding season. There may be some social hierarchy within flocks of cedar waxwings, but this has not been studied. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Home Range

The home range size of cedar waxwings is unknown. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Cedar waxwings communicate using vocal and physical signals. They produce several calls that are variations of either rapidly repeated buzzy high-pitched notes or high-pitched hissy whistles. These calls can communicate hunger, anxiety, well-being and a number of other messages. They are produced by male and female adults as well as chicks. Cedar waxwings also communicate using physical displays. For example, they may communicate anxiety by raising the crest on their heads. They can signal that they are feeling threatened by opening their mouths and ruffling their feathers. Females usually display this behavior to signal rejection of a male's attempt at courtship. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

During the winter, cedar waxwings eat fruit almost exclusively. They rely heavily on cedar berries, especially in the northern part of their range. The birds take the fruit from the tree by holding on to a branch and plucking it off with their beaks. They do this sitting upright or dangling upside-down. They also can remove the fruit from the tree while hovering.

During the summer months, cedar waxwings switch to eating mostly insects. Often, the waxwings will catch their prey by congregating around ponds and streams and waiting for the insects to emerge from the water. Most of the time, they snatch their prey right out of the air. They also glean bark and forage through tree branches for insects. (University of Georgia Museum of Natural History, 2000; Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Known predators of adult cedar waxwings include merlins, sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper’s hawks, common grackles and bullfrogs, which attack the waxwings as they drink from stock ponds. Blue jays are known predators of nestlings and house wrens have been observed eating waxwing eggs.

Cedar waxwings may respond to a threat by assuming an erect posture, apparently to make themselves more cryptic. If flying together in a flock, they may crowd together and fly in specific formations to evade pursuers. During the incubation and the nestling periods, males guard the nest and give a warning call when predators approach. Parents whose nest is threatened may try to distract the predator by flying away from the nest in a zig-zag path, or by diving at the predator. Unlike many other small bird species, cedar waxwings are not known to mob large predators. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Cedar waxwings disperse seeds of the plants that they eat while eating the berries and through defecation. They also affect populations of the insects that they eat. Finally, cedar waxwings host external parasites, including feather mites and hippoboscid flies. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Cedar waxwings eat some economically valuable fruit crops.

Cedar waxwings eat insects that some people consider to be pests. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Cedar waxwings are common throughout their range, and have increased in number over the past several decades. This population increase is probably due in part to the increase in fruiting trees and shrubs as agricultural lands revert to forest.

Cedar waxwings are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Act. They are not protected under CITES or the U.S. Endangered Species Act. (Witmer, Mountjoy, and Elliot, 1997)

Bombycillia cedrorum is one of only three species of waxwing in the family of Bombycillidae. The other two species are found in North America (Bohemian waxwing) and Japan (Japanese waxwing). ()