Bohemian Waxwing

Across the northern United States, your best window is November through March during irruption years. The species is genuinely unpredictable — some winters produce hundreds of sightings across multiple states, others almost none anywhere south of Canada.

Watch eBird alerts closely starting in November. Early signs of an irruption include scattered reports filtering down from the northern border states. Once birds appear in your region, check every fruiting crabapple and mountain ash you can find — flocks tend to strip one tree then move to the next.

Best time of day is morning, when flocks are actively foraging. Look for tight groups descending rapidly onto fruiting trees. Listen for their distinctive trills overhead — large flocks are surprisingly noisy in flight and are often heard before they're seen.

The Bohemian Waxwing is a plump, robin-sized songbird with a prominent pointed crest and silky plumage. It measures about 7.5–9 inches in length, noticeably larger than the Cedar Waxwing.

Adults are mostly grayish-brown overall with a subtle peach wash around the black face mask. The belly is gray (not yellow like Cedar Waxwing), and the undertail coverts are a distinctive rich rufous — this is the single best field mark to separate it from Cedar Waxwing.

The wings show two bold white rectangular patches and red waxy tips on the secondary feathers. The tail ends in a bright yellow band. These waxy red tips grow larger as the bird ages.

Key differences from Cedar Waxwing: Bohemian is larger and grayer overall, has rufous (not white) undertail coverts, lacks the yellow belly, and shows much more prominent white and yellow wing markings. When flocks of Cedar Waxwings pass through your area, always check carefully — Bohemians sometimes mix in.

Breeds in open coniferous and boreal forests at high latitudes across Alaska, western Canada, and northern Eurasia, typically near water — lakes, streams, and peat bogs with standing dead trees.

In winter, the species becomes highly nomadic. Their range depends almost entirely on fruit availability. In good berry years they may stay north; in poor years, large flocks irrupt southward across the northern tier of the United States — from the Pacific Northwest and Great Plains east through the Great Lakes and into New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

When irrupting, Bohemian Waxwings turn up in parks, suburban neighborhoods, and along roads wherever crabapple, mountain ash, and ornamental berry-producing trees are found. They can appear in any northern or mountain state in the right year, and are essentially absent in non-irruption winters.

Highly social year-round. Winter flocks typically range from 50 to 300 birds, sometimes reaching into the thousands. They often associate with Cedar Waxwings and American Robins.

During summer they catch insects on the wing, flying out from exposed perches. But for most of the year they are fruit specialists, eating berries whole — mountain ash, crabapple, hawthorn, juniper, serviceberry, cranberry, and Russian olive are all favorites.

Waxwings have a famously high tolerance for alcohol from fermenting fruit, though they can still become intoxicated — sometimes fatally. They frequently drink water and eat snow to aid digestion of high-sugar dried fruits in winter.

Their courtship ritual involves passing a berry back and forth between male and female — sometimes up to 14 times before mating. They do not defend breeding territories, which is unusual among songbirds. This likely reflects the patchy, unpredictable nature of their food supply.