Honestly, I don’t know how long they’ve been back. A serious birder or “twitcher” ** would be your source on that. I’m into the natural symbiosis of me and bird — not so much active pursuit.
** That link, by the way, takes you to an interesting NYT article on delineations between the serious and not-so-serious bird people.
All of that said, we got our first injured Cedar Waxwings at the hospital in the past two weeks (usually window hits). And today, I saw the first flock of Waxwings returning to the pyracantha and holly trees in our shared back garden.
Waxwing in Pyracantha - ©ingridtaylar
A fellow volunteer who’s brilliant in the bird kind of way (and other ways) educated me on the red, waxy tips of the bird’s wings — the obvious source of the bird’s name. The red, waxy spots are pigmented portions of the secondary feathers. The substance is astaxanthin, or as the National Center for Biotechnology describes it:
it’s “. . . astacene (3,3′,4,4′-tetra-keto-beta-carotene), the oxidation product of astaxanthin.”
You can see the red waxy marks in this photo below . . . of a Waxwing in one of its favorite culinary pursuits:
Waxwing Eating Pyracantha Berry - ©ingridtaylar
From a rehabilitator’s standpoint, the Cedar Waxwings are among my favorites. Their bandit-mask appearance is enough to justify the affection. But the empathy swells when you realize how many Waxwings hit windows, flying in close formation as they do.
A few days ago, we received an unusual and tragic duo in the hospital — a waxwing and a predator, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, who’d both hit an acrylic backboard of a basketball hoop. For those of us self-proclaimed softies (that would be me), situations like this never fail to produce a few lumps in the throat, if not tears.
As kids, you often hear that a bird hit a window and is just “stunned.” I didn’t realize until I started volunteering, the magnitude of the head injuries birds can and do incur, depending on the force with which they hit windows. There are medications given to reduce swelling and otherwise help them recover from such damage.
If you’re interested in preventing bird/window collisions in your own space, here’s some good information from Audubon on helpful things you can do for the feathered people among us: Minimizing Window Collisions.
Waxwing in Winter Maple Tree - ©ingridtaylar
