Sharp-dressed birds
Beauty is not skin deep on a bird. In just its skin, there is hardly anything more ugly than a bird. It is the feathers growing out of the skin that make all the difference and dress up a bird in the pleasing image that we see.
Birds come in an endless variety of colours, patterns and shapes. The colour schemes in nature are the best. If you ever wanted to find a new colour scheme for the jerseys of your next sports team, or the interior and exterior paint for your house, get out a bird book and check out how Mother Nature has matched colours and created designs of beauty.
The cedar waxwing is basically a fawn brown colour with yellow wash on the lower belly, a grey tail with yellow rim on the tail and a tiny touch of red in the wing. Not much to get excited about from this paltry description, but nature has a way of throwing these colours together and generating a piece of art.
The bird looks like it was airbrushed as colours blend seamlessly. A black mask through the eye and a smart top knot give the bird a dapper look. Everyone likes a welldressed bird.
There are two kinds of waxwings in Newfoundland and Labrador. The bohemian waxwing is the waxwing of winter. It usually occurs in flocks of several dozen or more around winter dogberry trees. Compared to a cedar waxwing they are greyer, with more white in the wing and red feathers at the base of the underside of the tail. found feeding on the same berries in August.
The cedar waxwings are putting in a strong showing this summer — have you seen them?
Cedar waxwings may also be here in the winter and often flock with bohemian waxwings. They are browner and have yellow at the base of the underside of the tail.
Cedar waxwings are our summer waxwing. They nest in urban settings around the province. They like the trees and shrubs we plant in our gardens. Flowering crab apple trees attract cedar waxwings where they seem to eat the petals.
Their summer diet is mostly insects for the first part of the summer. They are experts at discovering pests like the looper that plagues the Norway maples in parts of St. John’s. They can be inconspicuous high in the urban maples. You will detect more if you recognize their very high-pitched thin calls.
They are not particularly shy, sometimes choosing nest sites in thick cedar hedges or a lilac tree near a busy pathway or by the front door. They are late nesters, waiting until mid-summer to build nests and lay eggs. This is so the young birds will have some berries to eat by late summer.
Elderberry and chuckly pear are common plants producing berries targeted by cedar waxwings in late summer. Robins are frequently Baby birds are showing up everywhere. Young pine siskins, purple finches and blue jays are being led to bird feeders. Young crows and robins are being found seemingly abandoned in backyards.
Young birds are occasionally separated from the caring parent birds before they are ready to look after themselves. If you come across a young bird in your back yard that is barely old enough to fly, nine times out of 10 it still being cared for by the parent birds that are probably away looking for food to feed to the youngster. I know these naive and nearly helpless birds are easy targets for hunting cats and curious dogs, but the rule of thumb is to leave the bird where you found it so the parents will know where they left it.
Caring for a baby bird is a massive undertaking that we don’t have time for or can do properly. Leave it alone and hope for the best.
Rare birds
A yellow crowned night heron photographed by Stephanie Smith around on her lawn around midnight on July 13 in New Harbour, Trinity Bay was a real surprise.
This rare southern heron shows up once or twice per summer in southern Newfoundland. They feed mostly at night and roost in a tree
of by daylight. Seeing this rare bird at night was a stroke of luck.
Jeff Harrison was lucky to glimpse a glossy ibis at Portugal Cove South. Perhaps it came up on the same southerly airflow as the night heron.
Sightings
rare and unusual birds will be reported more frequently as we head into late summer.