The Waxwing is a plump bird, which is slightly smaller than a starling. It has a prominent crest. It is reddish-brown with a black throat, a small black mask round its eye, yellow and white in the wings and a yellow-tipped tail. It does not breed in the UK, but is a winter visitor, in some years in larger numbers, called irruptions, when the population on its breeding grounds gets too big for the food available. Where does it live?
Breeding
Dense northern forests, with lichen-covered pines Wintering
Parks and gardens, even busy public places – anywhere where there are berry-bearing trees and bushes.
Where to see it.
The first British arrivals each winter are usually seen on the east coast from Scotland to East Anglia, but birds move inland in search of food, increasing the chances of seeing one inland.
It eat Berries particularly rowan and hawthorn, but also cotoneaster and rose. It sound like it makes a high-pitched, trilling ‘sirrrrr’, like a bell.
You see it October to March.