Cedar Waxwing
Chasing Berries
The Cedar Waxwing is a medium sized bird with very distinctive looks and wonderful earth toned coloration. Where I live in North America I begin to spot the Cedar Waxwing starting in late spring and continue to watch their behaviors until summer's end, but mostly as the food source deplenishes so do the Cedar Waxwing. This particular species move about in small flocks up to several dozens, moving from feeding area to feeding area and normally stay in an area until the food becomes scarce or other larger more aggressive birds arrive.
In late May the Cedar Waxwings can be found in an around trees bearing fruits such as raspberry, and for some reason these birds prefer the less ripe berries over more darker ripe ones. The Cedar Waxwing can be hard to spot as they seem to like being inside the tree branches among the leaves and berries. I was out recently and did not see any Waxwings, not until I looked trough my lens and began to scan the trees, their among the branches were at least a dozen.
Finding Cedar Waxwing: The Audubon list these as common around the east coast most of the year, but my real life experience they are best found Mid Spring through Late summer around fruiting trees and bushes, with Raspberry, and blackberries seem to be a favorite. In order to discover a flock - first find your fruiting trees in spring, then scout your area for a flock moving through as the berries become available.
Gear to Use: I have used everything from a 70-200 all the way to the 600mm with TCs. I can only relate to my environment, these birds normally hang outside a 200mm range unless you bait them, so in nature you probably need a 300 and greater. I find a good crop sensor body works wonders with the Nikkor 300mm ED PF lens, or if you have the very nice 200-500 - Awesome Goodness !!