I'm not sure what kind of bird this is, but there were 20 or more of them eating up all the crabapples. Unfortunately, I found one of these birds dead on my deck under some fallen leaves with no apparent injuries I could see :'( ( photo / image / picture from Bluewing0's Garden )
I believe that it is indeed a Waxwing. Interestingly enough last night on the TV program called Autumnwatch--they had a feature on the Waxwing and said that they were leaving Scandinavia in large numbers to...supposedly looking for berries They are expecting them in Great Britain and other parts of Europe in the coming weeks. I sure hope so, they are a remarkable beautiful bird. I wonder if your specimen is one of the Scandinavian flock or strictly from a North American group. A beautiful bird in any event.
That's a waxwing! They are one of the few birds that overeat-they stuff themselves until the food source is gone. What their bodies don't need for nutrition just passes through their systems (which means a mess, especially if the berries are blue). They come in large flocks to eat the juniper berries from our ashe juniper trees here in Texas. Even though it means a trip to the carwash, I still enjoy seeing the cedar waxwings!
Waxwings are such beautiful birds! I watch for them during our cold months as they come to feed in huge flocks. They usually show up to devour my crabapples. Nice photo too!
Thanks everyone for the id and nice comments :-D That's the bird!!! I agree, they are such pretty birds. I really like the bright yellow coloring on the tips of their tails and their mysteries looking mask. Cedar waxwing did cross my mind (for a second) because of the mask, but for some reason, I thought they were more greenish in color and larger in size.... They sure were going "crazy" for those crabapples They striped the tree bare clean in no time!
That's amazing! Are you Dr. Doolittle in disguise? You obviously can talk to the animals! Waxwing ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden ) As you can see, our waxwings prefer our trees to our hands!
Dr. Doolittle is right :-D Talk AND walk with the animals Nice photo marlingardener! Kildale, How did you get the bird to go on your hand like that? That's something!
