page_title: Cedar waxwing
section_title: Diet
hierarchical_section_title: Cedar waxwing / Behavior and ecology / Diet
caption_attribution_description: Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) hovering under the dripping sap of a sugar maple tree.
context_page_description: The cedar waxwing is a member of the family Bombycillidae or waxwing family of passerine birds. It is a medium-sized, mostly brown, gray, and yellow bird named for its wax-like wing tips. It is a native of North and Central America, breeding in open wooded areas in southern Canada and wintering in the southern half of the United States, Central America, and the far northwest of South America. Its diet includes cedar cones, fruit, and insects. The cedar waxwing is not endangered.
  The genus name Bombycilla comes from the Ancient Greek bombux, "silk" and the Modern Latin cilla, "tail"; this is a direct translation of the German Seidenschwanz, "silk-tail", and refers to the silky-soft plumage of these birds. The specific cedrorum is Latin for "of the cedars".
context_section_description: The cedar waxwing eats berries and sugary fruit year-round, including "dogwood, serviceberry, cedar, juniper, hawthorn, and winterberry", with insects becoming an important part of the diet in the breeding season. Its fondness for the small cones of the eastern redcedar (a kind of juniper) gave this bird its common name. They eat berries whole. They sometimes fly over water to catch insects. The cedar waxwing is sometimes responsible for significant damage to commercial fruit farms and thus can be considered a pest, especially because it feeds in large groups.
  When the end of a twig holds a supply of berries that only one bird at a time can reach, members of a flock may line up along the twig and pass berries beak to beak down the line so that each bird gets a chance to eat.
  Sometimes, cedar waxwings will eat fruit that is overripe and has begun to ferment, intoxicating the bird.
caption: Feeding on tree sap
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