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Bohemian Waxwing

Bombycilla garrulus L 8 ¼" (21cm)

Photo by Maslowski Wildlife Productions. Listen to a Bohemian waxwing.

The Bohemian waxwing, the big brother of the much more widely spread and familiar cedar waxwing, is a wanderer. Separated from its smaller relative by its grayer plumage, red undertail coverts, and yellow and white in the wing, it is a bird of the northern boreal forests, breeding in Alaska and western Canada. In winter it moves south and east, and when its favorite berries and fruits are in low supply it can invade areas as far away as the Canadian Maritimes and the northern and central Rocky Mountains. The common call is extremely similar to that of the cedar waxwing, a high, thin, sibilant shree, but it is slightly lower-pitched, more hoarse, and has more of a trill. Bohemian waxwings are hardier and more cold tolerant that cedar waxwings and except in parts of the northern part of the western US, it is rare that they are found in the same place. In the largest invasion years, however, Bohemians occasionally wander much farther south and in those cases a single Bohemian will usually be found with cedars.

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