Waxwings — Cedar and Bohemian. Why the wax?

Males of both species have red waxy tips on the secondary wing feathers (outer feathers that end about mid-wing). The photos show the bird with tips visible and a closeup of the tips. Biologists know of no particular purpose for them. Speculation is that they serve as courtship adornment. This bird was feeding in a crab apple tree in our neighborhood on Saturday.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 12th, 2009 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Bird biology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.