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Waxwing? (1 Viewer)

doric

Member
Hi all, Over the past year, my husband and I have encourage wild birds into our garden which being of older years, we get a huge amount of pleasure from. We have a number of feeders of various types strategically placed which attracts many wild birds, although we don't know enough to be able to identify them. It is not a large garden so we can comfortable sit in the chair at our window and watch all the comings and goings, we also have a small cherry tree in the corner, which is presently laden with fruit. Last week we noticed what to us was rather an unusual bird about the size of a starling, greyish in colour with a tinge of red on the sides of the face. It is black around the eyes and has a crest on it's head. The wings have yellow/white markings on the edge and the tip of the tale appears to be yellow. After a little research we think it might be a waxwing and has become a regular daily visitor to our tree enjoying the fruit from it. Can any experienced twitchers confirm this and could explain why it should be a loner, it doesn't appear to have a mate? Any other information would be most appreciated, because as I said we are complete novices. Many thanks Doric
 
Hi Doric and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators.

Waxwings are the most beautiful winter visitor to our shores; make the most of them, as they'll be heading back to Scandinavia shortly. They usually move around in flocks, so your one seems to have become detached from his pals.

You can read more about them here in our Opus article.

I'm sure you will enjoy your time here with us and I hope to hear more about what you see.
 
Hi doric and a warm welcome to you from across the pond :t:

Enjoy and please join in wherever you like ;)
 
Many thanks to the three of you for the kind welcome and comments. Perhaps I can ask another question? Our little bird has been in our tree practically all day apart from a few brief intervals. He definitely seems to be a loner so will he be ok without his pals and will he migrate back where he came from on his own. Doric
 
Hi again Doric. Don't worry about him, he'll be fine. They've been doing that autumn / spring trip for thousands of years and it's ingrained into them.
 
Hi Doric, welcome to the forum. I think you will find us a friendly and helpful group.
 
Welcome to BirdForum! I am sure you will find lots to interest you here, and I hope you enjoy your visits. Lucky you having a waxwing visit your garden!
 
Thank you Delia for your reassurance, he just looks so sad and lonely sitting there in the tree, but certainly enjoying chomping away on the copious amount of fruit available. Once gone, I wonder if he will come back for more next year !!!!
 
Thank you for the welcome Kits, we feel extremely lucky to have our little visitor only a few yards away from us. He was a complete stranger when he decided to pop by last week and we didn't even know what sort of bird he was, but what pleasure he has given to two old people. We have even virtually stood right underneath him and whereby the other birds immediately fly away, he just sits there munching away on the berries without any care whatsoever. We do have a visiting cat (much to my annoyance) and I am concerned that he might be a good catch for it. Do you or anyone else on the forum have any ideas for keeping cats away from the garden?
 
Thank you Delia for your reassurance, he just looks so sad and lonely sitting there in the tree, but certainly enjoying chomping away on the copious amount of fruit available. Once gone, I wonder if he will come back for more next year !!!!

Waxwings don't generally come here every winter, at least not in great numbers, maybe every or so years. There are what is known as irruption years, when they do. But certainly they do have their favourite trees and areas where they will visit regularly. Supermarket car parks are a favourite. So next time they come over, you will probably get them again.

As for your question about cats, if you look in the Garden Bird forum, at the top you will find some 'sticky' threads, one of them is about Cats Frequently asked questions, which has lots of ideas to help you.
 
Waxwing

Hi folks,

Just a quick update about our little Waxwing which graced us with its presence over the past week. He has given so much pleasure watching his comings and goings and enjoying the fruits of our cherry tree and of course we became quite fond of him - spending so much time in the tree, he would often flex his wings on preening and show us what a magnificent chap he was. Alas all good things come to an end and he last appeared at 8.30am on Friday morning, enjoyed more fruit from the tree then just seemed to sit and stare at us as we watched him out of the window. Another bird appeared on the roof of the house opposite (couldn't identify it) but our little bird decided to fly over to it and then in the blink of an eye they were off together and we haven't seen our little friend since. We feel very priviledged to have known this little chap and hope that if he has made his way back to Scandinavia, he will have had safe journey and perhaps one day may come back and see us again.

Thankyou all for your help and interest when we tried to learn more about him.

Doric
 
Thanks so much for the update Doric.

Yes, I guess they're heading back to Scandinavia now, I've not seen any here for a couple of weeks now.... well 10 days actually LOL.
 
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