The Four Keys to ID
- Size & Shape
Bohemian Waxwings are full-bellied, thick-necked birds with a shaggy crest atop a pin head. The wings are broad and pointed, like a starling's. The tail is fairly short and square-tipped.
Relative Size
Larger than a bluebird, smaller than an American Robin.
robin-sizedMeasurements
- Both Sexes
- Length: 6.3-7.5 in (16-19 cm)
- Weight: 1.6-2.4 oz (45-69 g)
- Wingspan: 13.0 in (33 cm)
© Evan Lipton / Macaulay Library
- Color Pattern
The Bohemian Waxwing is grayish brown overall with subtle peach blushing around its black mask. The wings have 2 distinctive white rectangular patches and red waxlike tips on the secondaries. The undertail is rusty and the tail is tipped in yellow. Juveniles are grayer overall with a streaked belly. Juveniles lack the adult's peach blushing around the face and the red-tipped secondaries.
© Evan Lipton / Macaulay Library - Behavior
Bohemian Waxwings are social birds that form large, compact, and noisy groups-sometimes in the thousands- as they scour the landscape looking for fruit during the nonbreeding season. They dangle on flimsy branches to reach fruit or perch side by side in fruiting trees.
- Habitat
Bohemian Waxwings breed in open evergreen forests and spend the nonbreeding season in open areas that have plentiful fruit, from city parks to forest patches near streams.
© Suzanne Labbé / Macaulay Library
