Alert Status:
Alert Status: Green
Estimated number of UK breeding
Estimated number of winter visitors: 10,000 (2012-2017)
Listen to Waxwing song:
The waxing is one of the UK’s most exotic-looking birds with its beautiful colouration and feathery crown. This plump bird has reddish-brown backs, grey rumps, black wings with white bars, and a black tail with a yellow tip. They have a pale/buff breast and a black bib and throat. Their heads are a reddish brown with a prominent crest, black mask, and red colouration on the cheek.
Average Length: 18 cm
Average Lifespan: 3 years.
Average Wingspan: 32 - 35 cm
During the winter waxwings eat mainly berries and fruit but will eat invertebrates during the breeding season. Waxwings will often venture into gardens looking for fruit so planting Rowan or hawthorn trees or hanging apples will attract these birds.
Waxwings do not breed in the UK, instead, they return to Fennoscandia to breed. They breed relatively late, not laying eggs until late May. 3-7 eggs are laid in an open cup-shaped nest and incubated by the female for 14 days before they hatch while the male feeds her. Both parents feed the chicks for 15-17 days until they leave the nest. As they start breeding late they only produce one brood before the breeding season ends in July.
Waxwings are green-listed and face no immediate conservation threats. They are hardy birds and do not respond to harsh winters in the same way as some of our other winter visitors. As their breeding grounds are often further north than any dense human populations, human disturbance, and habitat destruction during the breeding season are limited. As frugivores, they have high daily water requirements and ingestion of road salt through drinking of melt water could lead to poisoning.
Plant autumn/winter berry bushes such as Rowan and Hawthorn in your garden.
Provide a plentiful supply of water throughout the winter.
Remove rotting or fermenting fruit from your garden.
As waxwings consume such a high quantity of fruit, there is evidence that they can become intoxicated from eating large amounts of fermenting fruit and berries.
BirdLife International (2023) Species factsheet: Bombycilla garrulus. Downloaded from http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/bohemian-waxwing-bombycilla-garrulus. Accessed: 31/10/2023.
British Trust for Ornithology (2023) Waxwing | BTO - British Trust for Ornithology. Available at: https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/waxwing. Accessed: 31/10/2023.
Dale, S. (2023). Irruptions of Bohemian Waxwings in relation to population density and food availability. Journal of Ornithology, 164(4), 887–899. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-023-02083-7.
RSPB (2023) Waxwing, RSPB. Available at: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/waxwing. Accessed: 31/10/2023
Topper, T. (2010). Suspected road salt poisoning in Bohemian Waxwings Bombycilla garrulus (Aves: Passeriformes: Bombycillidae). Vertebrate Zoology, 60(2), 171-174.
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