Species: Bombycilla cedrorum
Cedar Waxwing
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
An 18-cm-long bird with a crest, yellow-tipped tail, silky plumage, and waxy red tips on the secondaries; brown above; pale yellow belly; white undertail coverts; juveniles has dark streaking (NGS 1983).
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Aves
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Bombycillidae
Genus
Bombycilla
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Ampelis Chinito - jaseur d'Amérique
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Perching Birds
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Passeriformes - Bombycillidae - Bombycilla - Banks and Browning (1995), as first reviser, elected CEDRORUM over AMERICANA for the specific name, and they regarded B. CAROLINENSIS as a nomen oblitum.
Ecology and Life History
An 18-cm-long bird with a crest, yellow-tipped tail, silky plumage, and waxy red tips on the secondaries; brown above; pale yellow belly; white undertail coverts; juveniles has dark streaking (NGS 1983).
Migration
true - true - true - Migration is not usually a regular north-south movement (Terres 1980). Arrives in Costa Rica (where sporadic in winter) in December, departs by end of April or in some years mid-May (Stiles and Skutch 1989).
Non-migrant
true
Locally Migrant
true
Food Comments
Feeds opportunistically on small fruits, in spring and summer also various insects. May consume maple tree sap and flower petals. Apparantly cannot maintain positive energy balance whenn feeding solely on high-sucrose fruits (Avery et al. 1995, Auk 112:436-444).
Reproduction Comments
Breeding season variable. Female incubates 3-5, sometimes 6, eggs for 12-16 days. Young are tended by both adults, leave nest at 14-18 days. Sometimes nests in small colonies of up to 12 pairs.
Ecology Comments
Usually travels in small groups or flocks; winter flocks may number in thousands.
Length
18
Weight
33
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
1996-12-03
Global Status Last Changed
1996-12-03
Other Status
LC - Least concern
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
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Global Range
H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - BREEDS: southeastern Alaska east to Newfoundland and south to northern California, northern Utah, western Oklahoma, southern Illinois, northern Alabama, northern Georgia, and northwestern South Carolina. WINTERS: locally from southern Canada and the northern U.S. south to central Panama, irregularly to the Bahamas and Greater Antilles, casually to northern South America.
Global Range Code
H
Global Range Description
>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)