Bohemian Waxwing

Bombycilla garrulus

Wanders the boreal forest in nomadic berry-drunk flocks. Shows up in your town one winter and never again.

Population: 8.4-11 million mature individuals globally (slowly declining trend; ~2.5 million in North America, 1.3-2.5 million in Europe)
Habitat: Open boreal coniferous and mixed forest, forest edges, and muskeg for breeding (high forest dependency, often well-drained areas near rivers with fruiting shrubs); in winter, ranges widely through woodlands, parks, gardens, farmland, and shrubby/urban areas with fruiting trees (e.g. mountain ash, juniper, crabapple)
Fun fact: The waxy red tips on a Bohemian Waxwing's secondary feathers, which give the family its name, are colored by carotenoid pigments absorbed from the fruit the birds eat.
Range: Holarctic: breeds across northern Eurasia (Scandinavia through Siberia/Russia) and northwestern North America (Alaska and northwestern Canada); winters irruptively and nomadically south into southern Canada, the northern/western United States, and central Europe/Asia depending on fruit crop availability
Diet: Primarily fruit and berries (especially mountain ash, juniper, crabapple, and other small fruits) in fall/winter; supplements with insects caught by flycatching during the breeding season, and feeds insects to nestlings
Size: 0.175 m
Wingspan: 0.33 m
Lifespan: 6 years

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