Yummy yaupon
You may remember the gorgeously fruitful possumhaws (Ilex decidua) that appeared in these pages three weeks ago. After I posted the second of those pictures to Facebook’s Texas Flora group on January 1st, a member commented that cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) had already stripped her possumhaws and yaupons (Ilex vomitoria) of all their little red fruits (berries in common parlance, drupes scientifically). That Texas Flora comment must have gotten picked up and broadcast on radio station KACW* (Kalling All Cedar Waxwings), because within a couple of hours a gang of those birds showed up at our house and gobbled down more than half the fruit on the yaupon tree outside my window. In today’s picture, which was a good photographic way to inaugurate the new year, you’re looking at one of the avian thieves caught in flagrante delicto. The waxwings came back on January 6th and mostly finished the job, so that now I see only a dozen or so spots of red outside my window, where in December hundreds had been.
* After I made up radio station KACW, I discovered that a real one with those call letters exists in South Bend, Washington. It has a greater range than its operators realize.
© 2021 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
That’s an absolutely awesome image! Earlier this week I saw a lone Cedar Waxwing in a Russian Olive tree in my neighborhood. It’s too early and why is it alone were my first thoughts. I’m hoping for more of them to come through if they’re on the move already.
Early Spring? That was my next thought.
circadianreflections
January 9, 2021 at 7:25 AM
After the cedar waxwings devour Austin, maybe they’ll head your way. The lone bird you saw could be the advance guard checking out your area.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 7:34 AM
I was thinking it might be the scout. 😀
circadianreflections
January 9, 2021 at 7:38 AM
Yes, a member of the Bird Scouts, not as well known as but more numerous than the Boy Scouts.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 7:43 AM
Love the idea of the Bird Scouts, hehe! Excellent timing for the photograph…makes a great image. 🙂
Ann Mackay
January 9, 2021 at 7:52 AM
Yes, my timing worked out in this picture and some others, but the birds’ actions in the food fest were so fast that most of the pictures I took didn’t catch good moments.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 8:00 AM
LOL!
circadianreflections
January 11, 2021 at 8:20 AM
What a charming shot of this lovely bird. I particularly like waxwings, and the way they pass berries (alright, drupes) to each other while murmuring gently. I typically only see them in gangs on their fall migration but that may be a function of where I’m positioned on their flyway.
melissabluefineart
January 9, 2021 at 8:13 AM
I seem to remember you mentioning the way waxwings pass fruits along to one other. Even with this latest bit of activity right outside my window, I still haven’t gotten to see that behavior. Maybe your waxwings are more altruistic than ours.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 8:25 AM
I’m sorry you haven’t seen it. It is a charming behavior. I suppose it is possible they only do it here.
melissabluefineart
January 9, 2021 at 8:30 AM
I’ve seen documentaries about animals in which certain behaviors occur in local groups that aren’t universally exhibited by the species, the implication being that those behaviors are learned rather than genetic.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 8:43 AM
Yes absolutely, I’ve seen that as well.
melissabluefineart
January 10, 2021 at 8:57 AM
Beautiful capture, Steve, of this action that is just raucous and a fun tale of communication.
Ellen Jennings
January 9, 2021 at 8:23 AM
I see you did posts about cedar waxwings, too, in 2015 and 2017. Three days before the ones that came to the yaupon outside my window, half a mile away I’d noticed a flock of birds gathered in treetops too far away for me to see them clearly. I think now they must have been cedar waxwings.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 8:40 AM
Wow, that first one was when we lived in CT! I don’t think I’ve seen any since that day 2017, at least not to get any images. I know they have been around from FB posts from local photographers, but it’s very easy to miss their visit!
Ha, they were coming to scope out, or eat their way through, your neighborhood! Great fun that you got to see them.
Ellen Jennings
January 10, 2021 at 6:32 PM
Yes, it was fun, as you know from your own experiences with them. I do hope you have another encounter with them where you are now, given that you’ve seen posts about them.
Steve Schwartzman
January 10, 2021 at 9:14 PM
That is a beautiful photo of cedar waxwing and fruit (haw in maw?), Steve. Good catch!
Lavinia Ross
January 9, 2021 at 9:29 AM
And that’s a good catch on your part: haw in maw!
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 9:37 AM
I love Cedar Waxwings and am happy to learn they now have their own radio station.
artsofmay
January 9, 2021 at 9:52 AM
For birds they’re pretty advanced, as shown by that radio station with its appropriate call letters.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 10:32 AM
Ha!
artsofmay
January 9, 2021 at 10:37 AM
You can say that again: ha ha!
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 10:39 AM
This could go on & on….and on
artsofmay
January 9, 2021 at 10:40 AM
Or we could put an end to it by reversing the letters and saying no and no.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 10:43 AM
Yes!
artsofmay
January 9, 2021 at 10:44 AM
So it’s yes to no and no.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 10:46 AM
Indeed.
artsofmay
January 9, 2021 at 10:46 AM
Perfect shot! Those waxwings are hard to get, because they’re always with buddies, flapping wings in motion!
Tina
January 9, 2021 at 10:09 AM
I faced multiple obstacles, particularly the darting in and out and then the quick body movements even after a waxwing had landed. Leaves and branches sometimes blocked my view of a bird I was trying to photograph. To compensate for the movements I set my camera to rapid-fire mode in hopes that one of the pictures in a burst would catch just the right moment, and some of the time that’s what happened.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 10:38 AM
Greetings from one of your avian thieves!
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/130447299@N05/19536057249/in/dateposted-public/]
Peter Klopp
January 9, 2021 at 11:57 AM
Yup, that’s the culprit, all right. You managed to show the bright red and yellow patches that waxwings have on them.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 2:07 PM
Down the hatch! 😉
Eliza Waters
January 9, 2021 at 6:10 PM
But not with a Hatch chili, which also ripen to red.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 8:20 PM
That’s a fun shot! I wish the cedar waxwings were more common, I’ve only seen them once or twice in my life, they seem like pretty merry little bandits, don’t they.
Robert Parker
January 9, 2021 at 6:39 PM
“Merry little bandits” is a good way to describe them. The first time I came across cedar waxwings denuding a tree was in 2010, when I’d gone to photograph a possumhaw and immediately changed plans and began photographing the action. Till then I hadn’t know cedar waxwings’ fondness for the little red fruits of our two Ilexspecies:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2015/02/15/cedar-waxwings-and-possumhaws/
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 8:25 PM
tee hee ‘vomit – oria’
tonytomeo
January 9, 2021 at 8:01 PM
It was believed that drinking quantities of yaupon tea would cause people to throw up, hence the species name.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 8:26 PM
In school, we were told that that ancient Romans ate the berries to induce vomiting in their vomitoriums so that they could feast more. It never occurred to us that the species is not endemic to the Roman Empire.
tonytomeo
January 9, 2021 at 8:45 PM
Sounds like some teacher(s) mistook the south-central United States for a province of the Roman empire.
Steve Schwartzman
January 10, 2021 at 6:13 AM
Maybe he did not expect to be taken seriously.
tonytomeo
January 10, 2021 at 11:03 PM
Or maybe he was referring to a European species of holly.
Steve Schwartzman
January 11, 2021 at 7:57 AM
That is not the sort of name that is mistaken for something else. Apparently, the name is derived from . . . what it sounds like it was derived from, but because the Natives of North American were thought to have used it as such, rather than ancient Romans. (As it was, it may have been consumed in conjunction with other herbs that caused the . . . effect.)
tonytomeo
January 11, 2021 at 7:26 PM
I’ve read that, too. I’m not sure anyone knows the truth of the matter.
Steve Schwartzman
January 11, 2021 at 9:04 PM
I don’t want to try the berries.
tonytomeo
January 11, 2021 at 9:52 PM
Awe delightful 🙏👌
sloppy buddhist
January 9, 2021 at 8:17 PM
Yes indeed, and I didn’t even have to leave my room to catch the action.
Steve Schwartzman
January 9, 2021 at 8:27 PM
Beautiful bird!!
norasphotos4u
January 9, 2021 at 9:07 PM
Your comment follows in the alliterative style of the post’s title.
Steve Schwartzman
January 10, 2021 at 6:14 AM
😅. Great morning news flash … I’m still chuckling! And I always thought Cedar Waxwings were such elegant, well-mannered birds.
Birder's Journey
January 10, 2021 at 7:08 AM
I think with “elegant” and “well-mannered” you confused the birds for the blogger.
Steve Schwartzman
January 10, 2021 at 7:31 AM
Lol, yes, I’m sure that’s what it was! ☺️
Birder's Journey
January 10, 2021 at 8:17 AM
Indubitably—well, actually dubitably.
Steve Schwartzman
January 10, 2021 at 8:28 AM
Every year I hope for another visit from waxwings, but I’ve only seen them here twice. I know that they’re often sighted north of Houston proper; they may well be in my neighborhood but, as you noted, they can discover a food source, strip a tree of its fruits, and be gone in a flash. Even twenty birds can make quick work of things.
On the other hand, I saw the same behavior yesterday afternoon when a large flock of robins descended on a local Chinese tallow tree and began eating its seeds. Unfortunately, I only had my macro lens with me, but I’m hoping they’ll still be around tomorrow after the front passes and the sun comes back out. I’ve seen more robins in the past month than I’ve seen in the past decade; they make a fine substitute for waxwings.
shoreacres
January 10, 2021 at 9:54 AM
One day in 2019 (I think) we had cedar waxwings and robins here together. I guess you could call it a kind of time-share, feeding-frenzy-wise. I sure hope your best-in-a-decade robins come back tomorrow so you can have a crack at them with a telephoto lens. With the cedar waxwings I put my camera in rapid-fire mode, and that allowed me to get a few pictures at just the right moment. If your camera has that setting, you may want to use it some of the time.
Steve Schwartzman
January 10, 2021 at 9:06 PM
[…] I took the photograph above looking out our front window at a yaupon tree (Ilex vomitoria) that the cedar waxwings had left […]
Fiat lux, fiat nix | Portraits of Wildflowers
January 11, 2021 at 4:35 AM
So THAT’S what a cedar waxwing looks like! I’d recorded a flock of them 1/8 and uploaded to YT (“Eye-caught Snippet, Tree-flocked birds and ambling deer, 1/8/2021”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXqz2DXQ0d4) and asked around for ID help. A birder told me the birds were cedar waxwings and they flocked at their privet twice a year.
I hadn’t thought to aim wherever they visited during swarmy short flights. Also, couldn’t zoom closer. Hmm, shoulda tried taking a high-res still or more.
whilldtkwriter
January 11, 2021 at 7:58 AM
I did take some still pictures similar to your video but even with a 400mm lens I couldn’t tell what species they were (someone who knows birds might have recognized them from their profile, as in your case). After the yaupon activity at my house three days later I realized the birds in the treetops must have been cedar waxwings. They could still be around, so you might yet get a closer look this season. If not, you’ll know to be on the lookout at the same time next year.
Steve Schwartzman
January 11, 2021 at 8:11 AM
Into the gaping maw of a cedar waxwing. It’s amazing to watch a flock enter a bountiful fruited tree and strip it of its berries. Yummy indeed.
Steve Gingold
January 13, 2021 at 4:57 PM
And yummy a few of the photographs I managed to get through my window. The glass isn’t the cleanest, so I had to do some work in Photoshop.
Steve Schwartzman
January 13, 2021 at 5:00 PM
Excellent timing, Steve! I’m a huge Cedar Waxwing fan so I hope you’re not too mad at them.
bluebrightly
January 14, 2021 at 1:50 PM
No, I’m accustomed to their depredations, though I’m sorry to see only a very few of the colorful yaupon drupes outside my window now. At least I got a few pictures out of it.
Steve Schwartzman
January 14, 2021 at 1:55 PM
Great shot … that’s a mouthful!
Julie@frogpondfarm
January 16, 2021 at 3:25 PM
We’d have trouble with something proportionately large in our mouth.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2021 at 4:38 PM
Ha ha we sure would … I’m thinking a baseball!
Julie@frogpondfarm
January 16, 2021 at 8:16 PM
That’d about do it—pretty hard to swallow.
Steve Schwartzman
January 16, 2021 at 10:19 PM
[…] of the year and into the new year. You’ve also occasionally seen some of the gluttons, both avian and mammalian, that feast on those fruits (those last two links take you to cute little animal […]
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