©Marlene Condon
November 7, 2020
One Thanksgiving week I happened to visit a place of business landscaped with many Bradford Pear trees (Pyrus calleryana). I was astonished to see that the trees were not only loaded with fruit, they were also loaded with Cedar Waxwings, birds that migrate from more northern states to winter in Virginia or areas farther south. (Some of these beautiful birds do nest in the higher elevations of Virginia, but most nest from southeast Alaska across Canada and into the northern United States.)
Although a Bradford Pear is very much a pear tree, related to the Common Pear (Pyrus communis) that provides us with large sweet edible fruits, the Bradford Pear only makes little fruits that are comparable in size to those of many crabapple trees.
The first time I ever saw Cedar Waxwings (they winter in flocks), I was looking out my kitchen window at, appropriately enough, a big Virginia Cedar (Juniperus virgianiana) that was covered with blue, berry-type fruits. I could not help but smile to myself that my very first view of these birds should be in a cedar tree, just as you might expect given their common name.
However, I realized that while the species name for this bird is indeed cedrorum, from the Latin meaning “of cedars” and does indeed result from this bird’s fondness for the blue fruits of the Virginia Cedar, our cedar is a juniper and not a true cedar. The true cedars are of the genus “Cedrus” and there are no naturally occurring representatives in North America. True cedars are found in the western Himalayas and in the Mediterranean.
The genus name of the Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla, comes from a combined Latin and Greek word meaning “silky-tailed”, referring to the soft, silky-looking plumage (feathers). These birds are called “waxwings” because they have bright-red, hard, wax-like tips on some of their wing feathers that may help with mate selection. This waxy material is unique to the two species of waxwings in the United States and a third species that is subarctic.
Waxwings are lovely birds to see, so a good way to attract them is to grow the kinds of fruits that they eat while spending the fall, winter, and part of the spring in our area. Besides the Virginia Cedar and Bradford Pear fruits, Cedar Waxwings will also consume the fruits of American Mountain Ash (Sorbus americana), Pyracantha, American Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum), American Holly (Ilex opaca), and Inkberry (Ilex Glabra).
Although the Cedar Waxwing gleans insects from leaf surfaces and catches insects in the air like a flycatcher during the warmer months, it eats nearly all fruits in fall and winter. If you plant some of the fruiting trees and shrubs mentioned above, next Thanksgiving you might be thankful not only for your own nice meal, but also for a wonderful view of Cedar Waxwings outside your home consuming the bounty you have provided. That would be a wonderful treat for you and the waxwings, surely a happy Thanksgiving for all!