Bohemian Waxwings

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common_nature

This weekend, we went to the botanical gardens and we saw a big group of Bohemian waxwings! They are very rare guests here on their way to and from Scandinavia and I had never seen one before. I did know instantly what they were seeing them all sitting in the tree though.

look at it displaying its crest!

you can see the yellow wingtips here - sadly I didn't catch the red waxy tips that give them their name in any of the photos

they're lovely birds, I am so thrilled I got to see them

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

shirebound

Hooray for your sighting!

From:

bookscorpion

It really was a dream come true

From:

pauraque

In New England we get these in the winter! The ones we see breed in Alaska. Sometimes they hang out in mixed flocks with Cedar Waxwings (the more common waxwing species in North America).

From:

bookscorpion

I was familiar with Cedar waxwings from US birding blogs before I even found out that there's a native species here :D

From:

yourlibrarian

How cool that you were able to catch them during their migration!

From:

bookscorpion

There was a whole group of birders who had come to see them after someone posted about them on a birding platform, everyone was very excited about it

From:

kaishin108

We have those here in Idaho but we call them Cedar Waxwings? Not sure if that's a different name or a different species. That's quite a few of them!

From:

bookscorpion

Yeah Cedar waxwings are a different species.
There were even more on the day before but a lot of them had already moved on, according to one person who had come both days to see them

From:

kaishin108

Thank you for that. Google AI was wrong, so un-dependable. I figured they must be a bit different.

From:

signoftea

What a great sighting! They're lovely birds.

From:

bookscorpion

They really are, their feathers looks so pretty

From:

turlough

What a wonderful sigh! Waxwings are so pretty and I love the way they sound like tiny bells. I actually had a small flock visiting my feeders last month.