A flock of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) returned to our yard this weekend. The lighting was quite nice this morning (20 March 2022), so I decided to try for a few photos. Things weren't quite working out, but then I noticed something interesting. I had zoomed in on the image on my camera to check the focus and I noticed that this individual had more than the typical yellow coloration on its tail.
Waxwings are known for having red waxy tips on their secondary wing feathers — like this:
But if you look closely, the waxwing in the first photo (above) has red-orange waxy tips on its tail feathers. Here's a closer view:
I couldn't remember seeing this before, so I read a little more about it in Birds of the World. Here's what it said — "Waxy appendages...are found on up to 8 central rectrices (among
r1–r4) in 0.3–0.9% of museum specimen and banded bird samples."
So it's pretty rare to find a waxwing with waxy tips on its tail feathers. Also, it's a little hard to count, but it appears that on the bird I photographed there are 12 red-orange waxy tips (Cedar Waxwings have 12 tail feathers.)
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