The waxwings are three species of passerine birds classified in the genus ''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 Hawai'ian '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 fruit, but at times of year when fruits are unavailable they feed on sap, buds, flowers and insects. 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.

Etymology

''Bombycilla'', the genus name, is

Vieillot Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) was a French ornithologist. Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collect ...

's attempt at Latin for "silktail", translating the German name ''Seidenschwänze''. Vieillot analyzed ''motacilla'', Latin for

wagtail Wagtails are a group of passerine birds that form the genus ''Motacilla'' in the family Motacillidae. The forest wagtail belongs to the monotypic genus ''Dendronanthus'' which is closely related to ''Motacilla'' and sometimes included therein. T ...

, as ''mota'' for "move" and ''cilla'', which he thought meant "tail"; however, ''Motacilla'' actually combines ''motacis'', a mover, with the

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

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 some of the wing feathers where the shafts extend beyond the barbs; in the

Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

and cedar waxwings, 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 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 dark. The adults moult between August and November, but may suspend their moult and continue after migration. Calls are high-pitched, buzzing or trilling monosyllables.

Behavior

Diet

These are arboreal birds that breed in northern forests. Their main food is fruit, which they eat from early summer (

strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...

mulberries ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...

, and serviceberries) through late summer and fall ( raspberries, blackberries,

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

, and honeysuckle berries) into late fall and winter (

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

berries, grapes, crabapples,

mountain-ash The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...

fruits, rose hips, cotoneaster fruits, dogwood berries, and

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. ...

berries). They pluck fruit from a perch or occasionally while hovering. In spring they replace fruit with sap, buds, and flowers. In the warmer part of the year they catch many insects by gleaning or 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. So that many birds can nest in places with good food supplies, a pair does not defend a territory—perhaps the reason waxwings have no true song—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 composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.pine 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: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

Migration

They are not true long-distance

migrants Migrant may refer to: Human migration *Human migration *Emigration, leaving one's resident country with the intent to settle elsewhere *Immigration, movement into a country with the intent to settle * Economic migrant, someone who emigrates from o ...

, but wander erratically outside the breeding season and move south from their summer range in winter. In poor berry years huge numbers can irrupt well beyond their normal range, often in flocks that on occasion number in the thousands.

Taxonomy

Some authorities (including the Sibley-Monroe checklist) place some other genera in the family Bombycillidae along with the waxwings. Birds that are sometimes classified in this way include the silky-flycatchers, the hypocolius, and the

palm chat The palmchat (''Dulus dominicus'') is a small, long-tailed passerine bird, the Monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Dulus'' and the family Dulidae endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (split between the Dominican Republic and Hai ...

. Recent molecular analyses have corroborated their affinity and identified them as a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

, identifying the

yellow-flanked whistler The hylocitrea (''Hylocitrea bonensis''), also known as the yellow-flanked whistler or olive-flanked whistler, is a species of bird that is Endemism, endemic to montane forests on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.Boles, W. E. (2007). Yellow-flan ...

as another member.

Species

In popular culture

Lucas Cranach the Elder - Two Dead Bohemian Waxwings - Google Art Project

Waxwings are mentioned in the first lines of the poem "Pale Fire" by "

John Shade ''Pale Fire'' is a 1962 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire", written by the fictional poet John Shade, with a foreword, lengthy commentary and index written by Shade's neighbor and academic col ...

", a fictional poet created by Vladimir Nabokov for his novel '' Pale Fire''. The waxwing identified in the Commentary to ''Pale Fire'' is a fictitious species. The novel's narrator claims that John Shade's father had a waxwing named for him, ''Bombycilla Shadei'', and in noting the name corrects the taxonomical error: '(this should be ''shadei'', of course)'. The line "I was the shadow of the waxwing slain" was also used in the song "The Obituaries" by the band The Menzingers. Waxwings are also mentioned in the song "Autumn" by

Joanna Newsom Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Northern California, Newsom was classically trained on the harp in her youth and began her musical career as a keyboardist in the San Francisc ...

References

External links

* *
Waxwing videos
on the Internet Bird Collection {{Authority control Extant Miocene first appearances Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot