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ForestCup nestSmall · 42 g
ID tip
The Japanese waxwing is 15–18 cm in length with a weight of 54–64 g, and its plumage is mostly pinkish-brown. It has a pointed crest, a black throat, a black stripe through the eye, a pale yellow centre to the belly, a grey rump, rusty-red undertail coverts, and a dark grey tail with a black-bordered red tip. The wings have a pattern of black, grey and white with a diffuse reddish-brown bar across the greater covert feathers. Its call is a high-pitched trill but there is no true song.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Japanese Waxwing
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 7 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is March, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Japanese Waxwing
The map shades 7 countries with regular records, and 1 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.
Recorded as a rare visitor in Mongolia.
About the Japanese Waxwing
The Japanese waxwing is a fairly small passerine bird in the waxwing family found in the eastern Palaearctic, where it breeds south of the breeding range of the related Bohemian waxwing, but overlaps extensively with it in winter. It feeds mainly on fruit and berries but also eats insects during the summer. The nest is a cup of twigs lined with grass and moss which is built in a tree. In males, the secondary wing feathers have red tips, the resemblance of which to sealing wax gives these birds their common name. It is listed by IUCN as Near Threatened, due to loss and degradation of its preferred forest habitat.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Bohemian WaxwingBombycilla garrulusThe Bohemian waxwing is a starling-sized bird 19–23 cm (7.5–9.1 in) in length with a 32–35.5 cm (12.6–14.0 in) wingspan, and an average weight of 55 g (1.9 oz).
Cedar WaxwingBombycilla cedrorumCedar waxwings are medium-sized birds around 6–7 in (15–18 cm) long and weighing roughly 30 g (1 oz).
Side by side: Cedar Waxwing vs Japanese Waxwing · Bohemian Waxwing vs Japanese Waxwing
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