December 2012. We have received several reports
of waxwings in Ireland. Reader Christine Cassidy has provided us with a series
of images taken in Derry of a flock of waxwings she spotted. We have also
had a report of waxwings in north west Donegal.
Britain has seen a large influx of several
thousand waxwings this autumn. With distinctive bright red tips at the end of
their dusky pink plumage, square-ended yellow tail feathers and a black
‘highwayman' band running across their eyes, these colourful little birds have
big characters. A flock of 1,000 was seen round the Isle of Skye, and several
flocks of up to 300 birds have been present in Yorkshire and the Humber region
as the birds move south after having depleted berry crops further north.
Breed in the Arctic
Waxwings are birds of the high Arctic and boreal
forest, the closest breeding populations being found in Scandinavia. Every few
years, flocks of birds erupt, possibly driven by good breeding seasons, or a
lack of berries, their main food source. They then fly across the North Sea to
spend the winter here. They often congregate in towns and cities, choosing very
public sites such as supermarkets or council car parks where the planting of
ornamental berry bushes such as rowan or cotoneaster provide great feeding
opportunities.
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