Hi Konrad
Nice to see the waxwings. We still have a few flying around our place too, but I think they haven't gone south yet. The berries on our mountain ash tree are long gone. The robins and waxwings cleaned the tree off at about the same time the leaves were going off. I have never seen that before. I thought robins were more insect and worm eaters. Oh well go figure!!!

Cheers Al

Nice pictures, Konrad, not to mention a beautiful tree. There's certainly lots of fruit in that tree for them to eat. I planted a Mountain Ash 2 years ago, and it promptly died the same year (got my money back from the nursery). I'd still like to try again, I really like those trees.

We've had a flock of about 25 or so resident bohemian waxwings in and around our yard since late November when I noticed them cleaning up all the chokecherries that the robins left behind. They've mostly been hanging out in a crabapple tree a couple houses over, but like to roost in my ash trees in the front yard as well. You're right - they are really beautiful birds.

A few years ago I winter decorated the flower pots on the driveway and used evergeen branches and cut a few sprigs of mountain ash stems with berries from a tree on an empty lot near me (old abandoned property with a great tree - wish I could just take it, LOL). Anyway, a large flock of bohemian waxwings found those berries in the pots and it was a whirlwind of activity there for about an hour - they gobbled up every berry and even dug into the pots for the dropped ones. That was late winter, probably all their good food sources were eaten up by then.

Wow, nice pictures! And what a crop of berries on that tree!

Al, robins are insectivorous in the breeding season, but change to eating fruit the rest of the year. That's how they manage to winter over (which they do in some number all across the prairies - almost any well wooded area, where people are out looking, will have a few recorded on Xmas bird counts), and how they survive their early migrations in March, when few insects are out and snow may cover the ground. Seems like strange behavior but apparently many groups (warblers, vireos, thrushes, etc.) are fruit-eaters on their wintering grounds, but feed themselves and their young on insects during breeding. The reason I say it seems strange is because on the wintering grounds (e.g. Central/South America), I'd guess insects would be plentiful. Perhaps insects provide superior nutrition during breeding and nesting (protein?)...just a guess.

Konrad, the young you see in late summer are most likely Cedar Waxwings (as these are the common breeders on the prairies) - they are easily distinguished by yellow undertail coverts (the area on the underside of the tail and vent area that's brown on Bohemians, visible on your excellent photos); they also have a different wing pattern. If you are interested, keep an eye out for cedar waxwings in your flocks of bohemians; they are normally migratory but it is not too uncommon for one or two to hang out with a flock of bohemians and winter over with them. And the closer you are to the mountains, the greater the likelihood of seeing the odd bohemian, out of range, in the summer.

Yes, amazingly beautiful birds - always such a pleasure to see!

Thank you all!

Very interesting and good info....I sure will have a closer look next time!

I find this very interesting....a bunch of them set on a birch tree and nibbleling on the seed head or whatever is left on the tree.
Konrad

Some more bird pics, [my wife took them]...it seems they almost eat anything but favor mountain ash.

Here, it looks like they are eating elm buts?

Investigating....

Amongst the berries...

I have grown a mountain ash tree from a seedling, [coming up around the yard ones in a while], no surprise, with all those seed disbursement, the tree looks like this now...

Seed disbursement