Cedar Waxwing

Name: Cedar Waxwing.

Latin: Bombycilla cedrorum.

Cool fact: Over most of North America, the Cedar Waxwing is the most specialized fruit-eating bird. This bird's primary foods are fleshy fruits that are high in sugar content. Like tropical birds with this diet, Cedar Waxwings are social all year long, they nest in loose clusters, and at times they wander widely in flocks in search of temporarily abundant sources of fruit. Because of their reliance on summer ripening fruit for feeding their hatchlings, they are among the latest birds to nest in North America.

Easy to see: In the Jim Cone farm,- Paso Ancho-, After the school.

Description: Cedar Waxwings are sleek, elegant birds with long wings, rather short tails, and a crest. They have a short, broad bill and short legs. Both sexes look alike. Adults are buffy brown on the head and back. The brown color shades to pale yellow on the belly and to gray brown on the back, fading further to slate gray on the rump and upper tail. The tail is tipped with a yellow band. The undertail coverts are white. The legs and feet are black. Adults have a narrow, black mask outlined in white that extends over the face to end behind each eye in a point. The chin is black. At the end of each secondary feather, the shaft is extended as a small, red, wax-like appendage. The number of these waxy appendages increases with age, until adult plumage is attained.