The waxwings are three species of
passerine bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
s classified in the
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
''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
silky-flycatchers (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
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
for "silktail", translating the German name ''Seidenschwänze''. Vieillot thought that ''motacilla'', Latin for
wagtails, 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. Calls are high-pitched, buzzing or trilling monosyllables.
Behaviour
Diet
These are arboreal birds that breed in northern
taiga forests.
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 (
strawberries,
mulberries, and
serviceberries) through late summer and autumn (
raspberries,
blackberries,
cherries, and
honeysuckle
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or Vine#Twining vines, twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae. The genus includes 158 species native to northern latitudes in North America, Eurasia, and North Africa. Widely kno ...
berries) into late autumn and winter (
rowan,
cotoneaster,
viburnum fruit,
crabapples,
rose hips,
dogwood berries,
juniper cones,
grapes, 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
song
A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...
), 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
A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...
, which she lines with fine grass, moss, and
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae.
''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...
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.
File:Waxwings (8284566802).jpg, Bohemian waxwings often form large flocks of several hundred during winter, searching for food
File:Bohemian waxwings (53514570831).jpg, Bohemian waxwings drinking. Many berries are dry, and access to drinking water (or snow to eat) is important
File:Cedar waxwing Courtship.jpg, Cedar waxwing pair passing a berry back and forth during courtship
File:Cedar Waxwing nest and eggs (14723635678).jpg, Cedar waxwing nest and eggs
File:2011-08-16 Rollins Savanna 5.jpg, The red tips on the secondaries are often absent on immature birds, such as this cedar waxwing
File:Lucas Cranach the Elder - Two Dead Bohemian Waxwings - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Two Dead Bohemian Waxwings'' by Lucas Cranach the elder, ca. 1530
Migration
They are not true long-distance
migrants, 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.
References
External links
*
*
Waxwing videoson the Internet Bird Collection
{{Authority control
Extant Miocene first appearances
Taxa named by Louis Pierre Vieillot