Cedar Waxwing
Bombycilla cedrorum
Cedar Waxwing · Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge · 3 August 2025
A Cedar Waxwing in a cherry tree at Jamaica Bay, a bird of berry scrub and woodland edge across the continent, and one that moves in flocks wherever the fruit is; a tree in fruit will have a dozen.
The black mask and crest make this one of the easiest songbirds to identify at a glance, and the waxy red tips on the secondary feathers, visible here as a thin dark line along the folded wing, give the whole family its name. The red tips are real wax, a secretion of the feather, and they get bigger with age; a bird with more of them is older and gets the better mate. The yellow band on the tail is turning orange in some populations, from a dye in the berries of an introduced honeysuckle.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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