Family: Bombycillidae, Waxwings view all from this family

Description 7 1/2 -8 1/2" (19-22 cm). A sleek, gray-brown, crested bird. Similar to Cedar Waxwing but larger, grayer, and with conspicuous white wing patches and rusty (not white) undertail coverts.

Habitat Open coniferous forests.

Nesting 4-6 pale blue eggs, heavily spotted and scrawled with black, placed in a loose, flat saucer of twigs, lichens, and grass in a conifer.

Range Breeds from Alaska, Yukon, Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba south to central Washington, northern Idaho, and northwestern Montana. Wanders irregularly farther south and east during winter. Also in Eurasia.

Voice   High-pitched, lisping seeee, harsher and more grating than call of Cedar Waxwing.

Discussion This species forms large winter flocks in the northern United States only about once a decade. Its occasional erratic movements southward in winter are thought to be caused by food shortages in the North. When it appears, it feeds on berries. One hundred or more of these birds perched in the top of a leafless tree in midwinter, calling shrilly, is an unforgettable event. Highly social, Bohemian Waxwings usually move about in tight formations, descending en masse on a clump of bushes and quickly stripping them of fruit.