GRAY BIRDS SEEN IN NORTH AMERICA

Bohemian Waxwing

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Bombycilla Garrulous

Bohemian Waxwing

Males have brownish-gray plumage with paler and grayer rump and underparts, and dark chestnut-orange undertail-coverts.

Flight feathers are blackish. The primary tips have yellow edges on outer webs, and narrower white edges on inner webs, forming a yellow stripe and several white fishhook-like markings on closed wings. Primary coverts and secondaries have broad white tips. Secondaries also have long, flattened wax-like red tips.

The tail is blackish, with a conspicuous bright yellow terminal band.

The head, crown and malar area are cinnamon to warm tawny. There is a black mask from bill base, through the eye and to the rear of the head under the prominent backward-pointing crest. There is a narrow white arc below the eye and a white streak below the gape. Chin and throat are black. The eyes are dark brown. Legs and feet are dark gray to black.

Females are very similar to the males but have a narrower yellow terminal band. The black throat is less well defined on the lower edge, and fewer or shorter red tips on secondaries.

Juveniles are duller than adults and grayer, with shorter crest, less extensive black mask and no black patch on the throat. The wing pattern is less conspicuous and the tail band is narrower. Underparts are whitish and slightly streaked brownish.

BILL: black with a pale base.

SIZE: measures about 6.3 - 7.5 inches in length, with a wingspan of 13 inches.

WEIGHT: weighs about 45 - 69 grams.

COLOR: brownish-gray, gray, dark chestnut- orange, yellow, red, cinnamon white and black.

Fruits and insects.

BREEDS: open evergreen and mixed forests frequently near lakes, ponds, or streams.

NONBREEDING SEASON: open woodlands, urban areas, roadsides, and parks.

Northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. Non-breeding birds occur south to Poland, the Balkans, and Ukraine.

CALL: Utters a weak, trilled, shivering “sirrr” when perched or in flight.

SONG: A soft, sustained series of quiet, trilled phrases, similar to the previous call but mixed with other sounds such as wheezy notes and harsh scraping sounds.

NEST: Both sexes gather evergreen twigs, grasses, mosses, and other plant fibers, but only the female builds the nest. The nest is a weaved open cup.

EGGS: 3 - 7 pale blue-gray eggs, with sparse black spots.

INCUBATION: 13 - 14 days, female fed by the male.

NESTLING PHASE: 15 - 18 days.

They 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.