BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary
Bombycilla cedrorum
Cedar Waxwing
| Scientific Name: | Bombycilla cedrorum Vieillot, 1808 | ||||||||||
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| English Name: | Cedar Waxwing | ||||||||||
| Classification / Taxonomy | |||||||||||
| Scientific Name - Concept Reference: | American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/. | ||||||||||
| Classification Level: | Species | ||||||||||
| Species Group: | Vertebrate Animal | ||||||||||
| Species Code: | B-CEWA | ||||||||||
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| Conservation Status / Legal Designation | |||||||||||
| Global Status: | G5 (Apr 2016) | ||||||||||
| Provincial Status: | S5 (Mar 2015) | ||||||||||
| BC List: | Yellow | ||||||||||
| Provincial FRPA list: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Wildlife Act: | |||||||||||
| COSEWIC Status: | |||||||||||
| SARA Schedule: | |||||||||||
| General Status Canada: | 4 - Secure (2005) | ||||||||||
| Migratory Bird Convention Act: | Y | ||||||||||
| Ecology & Life History | |||||||||||
| General Description: | An 18-cm-long bird with a crest, yellow-tipped tail, silky plumage, and waxy red tips on the secondaries; brown above; pale yellow belly; white undertail coverts; juveniles has dark streaking (NGS 1983). | ||||||||||
| Global Reproduction Comments: | Breeding season variable. Female incubates 3-5, sometimes 6, eggs for 12-16 days. Young are tended by both adults, leave nest at 14-18 days. Sometimes nests in small colonies of up to 12 pairs. | ||||||||||
| Global Ecology Comments: | Usually travels in small groups or flocks; winter flocks may number in thousands. | ||||||||||
| Migration Characteristics: (Global / Provincial) | |||||||||||
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Nonmigrant: Local Migrant: Distant Migrant: Within Borders Migrant: |
Y / Y / Y / na / |
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| Global Migration Comments: | Migration is not usually a regular north-south movement (Terres 1980). Arrives in Costa Rica (where sporadic in winter) in December, departs by end of April or in some years mid-May (Stiles and Skutch 1989). | ||||||||||
| Habitats: (Type / Subtype / Dependence) |
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| Global Habitat Comments: |
A wide variety of open woodland types, either deciduous or coniferous, forest edge, second growth, parks, orchards and gardens; in migration and winter occurring wherever there are trees (AOU 1983). Nests in tree or shrub, 2-15 m above ground, in fork or on outer horizontal limb (Terres 1980). |
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| Food Habits: |
Frugivore: Adult, Immature
Invertivore: Adult, Immature |
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| Global Food Habits Comments: | Feeds opportunistically on small fruits, in spring and summer also various insects. May consume maple tree sap and flower petals. Apparantly cannot maintain positive energy balance whenn feeding solely on high-sucrose fruits (Avery et al. 1995, Auk 112:436-444). | ||||||||||
| Global Phenology: |
Diurnal: Adult, Immature
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| Provincial Phenology: (1st half of month/ 2nd half of month) |
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| Colonial Breeder: | N | ||||||||||
| Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): | 18/ / 33 | ||||||||||
| Elevation (m) (min / max): |
Global:
Provincial: |
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| Distribution | |||||||||||
| Endemic: | N | ||||||||||
| Global Range Comment: | BREEDS: southeastern Alaska east to Newfoundland and south to northern California, northern Utah, western Oklahoma, southern Illinois, northern Alabama, northern Georgia, and northwestern South Carolina. WINTERS: locally from southern Canada and the northern U.S. south to central Panama, irregularly to the Bahamas and Greater Antilles, casually to northern South America. | ||||||||||
| Authors / Contributors | |||||||||||
| Global Information Author: | Hammerson, G. | ||||||||||
| Last Updated: | Apr 11, 1996 | ||||||||||
| Provincial Information Author: | |||||||||||
| Last Updated: | |||||||||||
| References and Related Literature | |||||||||||
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp. |
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Banks, R. C., and M. R. Browning. 1995. Comments on the status of revived old names for some North American birds. Auk 112:633-648. |
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Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, J.M. Cooper, G.W. Kaiser, M.C.E. McNall and G.E.J. Smith 1997. The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 3, Passerines: Flycatchers through Vireos. UBC Press in cooperation with Environ. Can., Can. Wildl. Serv. and B.C. Minist. Environ., Lands and Parks, Wildl. Branch. 700pp. |
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Droege, S., and J.R. Sauer. 1990. North American Breeding Bird Survey, annual summary, 1989. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 90(8). 22 pp. |
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Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio. |
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National Geographic Society (NGS). 1983. Field guide to the birds of North America. National Geographic Society, Washington, DC. |
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Oberholser, H.C. 1974. The bird life of Texas. 2 vols. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin. |
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Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp. |
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Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. |
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Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.
Suggested Citation:
B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 1996. Species Summary: Bombycilla cedrorum. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Apr 5, 2026).