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A narrative podcast from two bird lovers (and friends) exploring all things bird.
I'm Hannah, and I'm Cleo, and you're listening to Birds on Birds.
Welcome back to Birds on Birds, where we talk about All Thing Bird.
Everything bird, everything bird, and nothing else.
Wow.
Well, sometimes people, but they sometimes bird.
Yeah.
And sometimes we talk about people relation to bird.
And sometimes it's bird, but not real bird.
Oh, fake bird.
Yeah, could be.
Birds aren't real.
Thing with wing.
Oh, now that would be an interesting.. Probably do a deep dive on that.
The whole thing. Like where it came from and where it started.
To be clear, I do think we're in a surveillance state, but I don't think it's the pigeon.
It's not the birds.
No, we're definitely, it's ring cameras in flock. Flock everywhere now.
Yeah, everything is recorded.
Which is also fucked up.
Like start, stop bringing birds into your business.
Flock?
Flock?
Get the flock out of here.
Flock away from us.
Flock you.
Have you seen the before we get started?
Have you seen that all of the people taking those down or not getting indicted?
Like people are going around and on Facebook?
People are literally commenting like, no, it wasn't him.
He was at my house.
And everybody's like creating fake alibis because everyone's like, yeah, take those cameras down.
Like, we don't want that.
It's awesome.
I've seen people doing it in like masks and using like balloons and stuff to block.
Keep it going.
Take down the flock cameras.
Let's go Take them down.
Vigilante squad.
Actually, I do think that kind of relates.
It does actually.
A little bit to our episode.
Because we've got some vigilante shit.
I mean, we've got a masked crusader.
Okay, yeah, I was going to say, I don't know anything about whether or not they're actually doing, they're not, they're, I wouldn't say necess- Well, I don't know every vigilante in what they get up to, but they do have a mask.
Yes, and they look like a mask.
They look like a little robber. A little bit.
So there's a overdo robber.
We are talking about one of my all-time favorite birds, one of my number one bucket list birds that I want to see the cedar waxwing.
Yes.
So the nicknames for this buddy.
Um, I mean, Cedar Waxwing, already pretty iconic.
I'm excited to get into like, what the hell does that even mean?
Because even the description, cedar waxwing?
It kind of fits how it looks almost like it was carved from wax or wood, cedar or wax. Either one.
It doesn't look real.
No, it looks like an AI generated bird.
It does.
So nicknames are cedar bird.
Crazy, super creative, or Canada robin, because they are very, very common in Canada, almost like the robin is in the US, what I kind of got from that.
Their scientific name is Bombisilidae.
They're genus, that's their family.
Their genus is bombacilla, of course, obviously.
Yes, of course, of course.
Um, but yeah, they are called, their scientific name is Bombacilla Sidro rum.
Said drum.
Yeah.
I think that you did a really good job with that.
I also think they're naming their family and genus, very similar to the Lord of the Rings character, where it's like Boramir, Boramar.
Barmar.
Saraman, Saraman.
It just keeps going.
Oh my God, that's true.
Saraman and Sauran.
Sauron.
Either way, you get the idea.
Yep, yep.
Latin is just exactly like that.
They just tweaked it a little bit.
It's too much, is what it is.
So what is their size?
They are about 5.5 to 6.5 half inches long, tip to tip, 14 to 17 centimeters.
Wait about one ounce or 32 grams.
Small.
Yeah.
And then wingspan, 8.5 to 11.5 inches, sometimes maybe like 11.8 technically is how big they can get.
So it's 22 to 30 centimeters.
And Merlin puts them between a sparrow and Robin.
I think a little closer to robin sized, but not quite as big.
That checks out, I feel, for me.
I've never seen one in person, but that's kind of the size I pictured them to be.
Yeah.
They are typically living 3 to 8 years in the wild.
The oldest banded bird on record lived just over 8 years.
Like that was the last tracking.
So it's typically more like 3 to 5 years in the wild, but they can live up to eight, it seems.
Are they in captivity at all?
Some, but more so, because I was looking at like behaviors on birds of the world, and they were talking about anting, you know, anting.
Oh, it's this thing that birds do where they like put ants all over their body.
Okay.
They like roll in ants.
I don't know why you're saying this to me, like, I thought we'd talked about it before, but maybe I just read it in that Rosemary Moscow, like, birdding term dictionary.
But yeah, they like roll in ants, but apparently it's only a noted behavior for cedar wax wings in captivity.
So, okay.
They definitely, I think, are in like zoos.
Sure, yeah.
But not like, it's not a common pet or anything.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, not like the strawberry fits. Being traded.
Yeah, black market.
We've talked about the description.
Very briefly, we mentioned that they have a mask and that they look like they were carved from something, but it is very like sleek.
They look...
I feel like we've talked about the.. We've talked about this with, I think it was the albatross, where the feathers are so...
They're so like packed and fine that you can't tell.
It almost doesn't look like they have feathers.
Yeah, it looks more like airbrushed.
It looks airbrushed. Yeah They literally like, unless their wings are opened or they're like puffing up a little, but if they look normal, they literally look like they're just kind of almost painted.
They don't look like they have a texture.
Yes.
They look kind of like the texture of like a dolphin.
Yeah.
No, exactly.
The only real distinction is the crest, which I'm sure you're going to talk about, but like it has like a crest of feathers. And that's the only place you can really see when they're sitting still that you can tell there's punctual feathers there.
Exactly.
Or, like, Cleo was saying, like, obviously flying.
You'll see the feathers more distinctly on the wings, but they are described by many as dipped in silk, which I thought was an interesting description for what we're saying.
Can you dip something in silk?
Don't know.
And I'm like, okay.
Yeah.
I mean, they do look, it all just blends together.
I guess that's like a sexy way to put it, that they're dipped in silk.
Can we dip ourselves in silk?
Will have to get back to you.
We'll have to figure that out.
I'll Google it So color wise, so we're in the silk world, we're sleek.
We're we're geling, we're going.
But the colors, they have like a very soft brown.
It's very like orangey brown, I would say.
Hard to describe.
It's got like a mild, rufousy color, but I say that only to the sense that like it is a red undertone brown.
Maybe a chestnut.
Right.
Exactly.
It's more of a warm brown than a cool brown.
It's not as intense as some of the other rufus that we've talked about where it's like very like, you're basically a redhead situation.
So they have that soft brown, especially on their head, and then it spreads down through their neck and chest, but fades into like gray wings and a pale yellow belly.
Yeah, very butter yellow.
Very of the season right now.
People love butter yellow.
They do.
They really do.
And they look very chic, very nice.
It's this beautiful fade.
It's very cool.
Fade kind of adds to the sleekness of it all because there's not a ton of distinct lines.
There are some, which I'm sure you're talking about, but patterns on the leg, from the head to the belly.
Exactly.
And the rump, like all of that just fades into each other.
Very, very smooth fade.
They have a very, very contrasty black mask across their eyes, but it is even more contrasted because it has this thin white edge on the entire mask.
So it's very, very distinct.
And it is truly across both eyes.
Like, it really looks like a mask that you would wear, like Zorro or something.
Yeah, it's really cool.
It's, it kind of goes back to that same like makeup vibe when you keep talking about, but this one even, it does kind of go Zorro, which is a good, good call out for later, but it has this like, it also fades.
So it's got this black line that's very stark, but then it's got the white and that white kind of starts to blend into that chestnut that then blends down.
And it's just a really cool evolutionary thing going on.
It's very cool.
And the like tips of the mask as they're fading into the like the head, the back of the head, it leads to like the crest, which sometimes the crest lays really flat.
Um, when they're in like certain positions, but a lot of times it's up a little bit and so you can see like a distinct little hat.
Yeah, it's a little...
No, it does have, it has like, um, so when it's down, it looks like, you know, when boys get that haircut that's like just at the top, but then they'll, if you brush it straight back, like it's buzzed all around, but just at the top, it looks like that.
If you were going to brush it straight back when it was wet.
But then when it's up, it kind of has the shape of like, um, what's the word I'm looking for?
Like when the guards stand outside the palace, and it's just like a big, tall hat.
Yeah, like a big circular.
Yeah.
Cylindrical hat.
It kind of has that shape and vibe.
A little bit when it's fully up.
It doesn't really look like that, but that's what I'm thinking of while I'm looking at it when it's up.
Yeah.
It just has a very cylindrical is the only word I can think of.
It's not, but from the front it looks like it would be.
Yep.
No, it's very silly.
It's very silly.
It's interesting.
It's cool.
I like it a lot They're very fine feathers too, from what I can tell, the one on the top even are also fine, but that's the only place where that like waxy mystique breaks.
As I mentioned, the chestnutty brown like fades into gray on the wings and the back, but the tail, it gets like fully gray before fading to like a slight black again, and then a very, very, very distinct yellow tip of the tail.
Yeah.
Like, it looks like you just dipped the tip of the tail in like it fell into something and then they were like, ah, no, it's bright yellow, bright yellow.
Super bright.
It's not like the butter yellow of their chest and belly.
No, no, very, very bright.
Very banana coated.
And then they also, this is part of their name.
It's their signature feature, technically.
They have these little red tips on part of their wing that looks like it was described as like little red wax droplets.
Oh, like when you would seal a letter with red wax.
So that's actually why they're called wax wings.
Red waxy tips.
Yeah, I can see that.
I mean, I would have never thought of that myself.
Well, and we just don't use wax lettering enough anymore.
Enough.
Yeah, bring it back.
Send people more wax letters.
No, I do think that that is something I've never really noticed about them.
No, actually, is that teeny tiny little bit of red and...
Because there's so many other distinct features.
Like, I would, I would never distress, whoa.
I would never describe this as their signature feature, but it is their namesake, so it makes sense.
I mean, I guess if you were in the land of being someone who was naming birds at this time and was just discovering all the birds, probably some random white man who was like, I'm the 1st guy who's ever seen this bird and I just wrote a letter home to my wife while I'm fucking someone else on this trip.
Oh, the waxy wing.
You know what I mean?
Like, I just think the birds have been named really haphazardly.
Yes.
They really in general?
And sometimes like mean.
I don't know.
So this feels very like, okay, yeah, I see what you're saying.
I do think overall it's on point.
I just think whoever was focusing on that.
They got it right, but for the wrong reason.
Right.
Like, and that's just my opinion.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
The male and female are actually nearly identical as adults.
So one of the birds that's like very difficult to sex by eye.
So the main tell is apparently that the male's chin throat is actually usually a little darker than the females.
Oh, okay.
So their brown fading to butter yellow is a little more drab, but there's not really any other sexual dimorphism.
No, they're initially identical.
So that explains why you really only see like very similar looking birds when they're doing courtship behaviors and stuff, it's because they look nearly identical.
That's so interesting because I do feel like this bird is so flamboyant that it surprises me that there isn't more...
No, exactly. Uh, more sexual dimorphism.
The juveniles are much like drabber, so they just haven't developed some of their, their feathers are more streaky.
They don't have the wax tips and their tailband is much duller.
I think they look like concerned for themselves.
I'm looking at a picture of one and he just, he looks too sleek and he looks too uncomfortable being in this.
And really the only thing I think that you could maybe use to tell very quickly in a quick situation is that little bit of yellow at the tail.
Otherwise, they really, it's almost like, you know, when you get a puppy and it goes through teen years, when they have just like an awkward phase where they're like a little too skinny and too long and random places, that's what these look like. Too long in in the wrong way.
Yeah, not filled out.
Yeah.
And then they fill out and they're gorgeous and stunning.
They do look really awkward as babies.
Yeah.
And it takes like a full year, sometimes up to 2 years to grow into their fun.
Wow.
Oh my god.
Okay.
And for a rent, like a 3 year average, like low side of the lifespan, that's a long time.
Yeah, they could spend half their life waiting to look hot.
Really awkward.
Just like Bella Swan.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Crazy.
One aside on this bird is that there is actually a variation that can come from a berry they eat.
So these birds have a heavy fruit diet, which I'll get into in just a minute, but they do in some areas eat berries from the invasive honeysuckle.
And if they're eating that honeysuckle berry, it will actually change their tail feathers from the bright orange.
Huh.
And that's the only time that that will vary.
Interesting.
I see that, actually, in a photo on birds of the world.
So that's cool.
That is really cool.
They do get quite orange as well.
I feel like we talked about that in the snowy egret one where they were talking about how sometimes the slippers get more orange and I was like, that still kind of looks yellow to me, but this actually goes pretty orange.
Yeah, yeah.
No, and it's interesting.
And it's specifically from honeysuckle, which is invasive in the areas that they're eating it.
So like they're also doing a favor to the ecosystem. Customize your avatar.
It's like when people eat like a ton of carrots so they can get more tan.
Yeah.
Oh what?
People do that, yeah.
I thought it was just like that you got better vision or something.
I don't know.
It's like good for you.
It's good for your eyes.
I don't know that it improves.
I just feel like I know someone maybe at one point who told me that if I ate enough carrots, I'd get x-ray vision.
Well, that would be cool and we'd all do it.
You'll also get a little tan.
Would we all do it?
I don't know, maybe not.
You were like, you were like, yeah, and we would all do that, and we would all see the inside of everything.
I mean, you could be an x-ray.
Surveillance state.
You could be an x-ray tech without even trying.
That's true You would just have the eyes for it.
That's true You could detect cancer on a stranger.
And isn't that what we all want?
Yes.
Or know when someone's pregnant way before they know.
Whoa.
I don't want that No.
That's a burden.
I don't think I want any of this.
The new meta goggles or like see through everyone.
Well, we're close, honestly.
So there's sound.
They don't have any song.
They're not a songbird.
They do have like a, we listen to it before we started.
It's like a very high pitched, almost like hissy sound, like it's very thin.
It's very quiet, hissy and high.
There's definitely, yeah, it's very high. It can be hard to hear sometimes.
Very like, uh, the pattern of it is really fun to look at.
Is it the spectrograph?
Yeah.
The spectrograph is really fun to look at because it's kind of like a, like a trill, like a very quick trill, and then it's like a, like a but way higher than that, to a level that I cannot get to.
No, I don't think we could imitate it as human beings.
Except for that one kid probably could.
Oh, probably.
He probably could.
But he can do anything.
Yeah, he's he maybe actually does have x-ray vision and the ability to like, I don't know, make birds.
Like, that's got to be something special, you know?
Something.
He's got like a half bird throat or something.
Yeah, he's got something, like, physically that makes him able to make sounds in a quick way that I don't have.
No.
And I wish I did.
Or he has something in his brain that doesn't block him from being able to do the things that we just know we can't do.
It's unclear.
One day maybe we'll talk.
Maybe we can find someone to train us and see how much better we can get. Like maybe it really is just a skill, like singing.
It's like when you train someone to like sing better and they can actually become really good.
Bird call trainer.
Yeah, I love that.
I'm looking forward to that.
So, breeding range.
They are typically very common in southern Canada, but they do travel down through the northern half of the U.S. They really like the woodlands, forest edges, they will go into old fields or orchards, and they've continued to kind of expand into suburban areas that have berries and trees that have berries.
Um, so bushes and trees that have berries.
Anyway, the point is, we are encroaching on their former homes, so they are adapting.
Yeah They do, in the winter, go down as far through Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and even the far northwest of South Africa, nope, nope, not South Africa.
No, that would be all of a sudden a different continent.
Nope.
They do sometimes travel as far down as like the very northwest edge of South America.
Okay.
So that whole little corridor.
But most populations are pretty year round.
So as long as their food source is holding out through the winter. Because that's the big thing.
If they don't have berries they can eat throughout the winter, then they're going to be going.
Interesting.
They are not the classic North South migrants.
They move based on where the berries are, not the calendar.
So blocks can show up in a huge number one winter and vanish the next if the food source that they were using has dried up or been taken away, been developed, whatever the place.
They're really late nesters.
Um, so they typically time their breeding with berry season, which is much more the beginning of fall, whereas most people, nope, most birds.
And the girls and the boys.
The human beings.
Nope.
The birds are usually nesting in like spring and then the birds are becoming fledglings and stuff in the summer and into the fall.
Whereas this is much later.
So sometimes they don't even start nesting until June.
So, yeah, very late for typical.
I mean, I guess that sort of makes sense, though, because based on what you're saying about how they migrate.
I feel like a lot of birds migrate, have a really specific path, pattern, and are not really able to adapt to where food is, which is why we're seeing those shrinking populations, and they go there, they breed, they go home.
You know what I mean?
Like it's a very set thing.
They seem more like squirrels where they're like, well, there's not berries here, but there might be a little to that side.
Exactly.
So I could see how that could mess with when they breed.
Yes.
Just overall.
Exactly.
They are monogamous for the breeding season.
Their courtship is instead of a dance, it's more like a hop.
So the male and female perch close together on a branch, and then they alternately hop toward and away from each other.
Sometimes they'll even like touch their bills.
But they just kind of hop forward back towards away from each other.
But the big thing that they do. That's very famous is they pass berries to each other.
Sometimes they'll do like a flower pedal or insect.
But it is more common to see them with berries because that's their main food source.
So they'll keep passing it back and forth until one of them finally eats it.
Oh.
And I, apparently it's a way of testing whether the male can actually provide food for future chicks.
Okay.
Yeah.
I feel that.
I actually say that you know that you have a real friend when you can just like hold food up and feed them and they just take it without question because they trust you.
This is something that I randomly do to my friends sometimes.
I just pass them a thing and see if they eat it.
Have you done that to me?
I think so.
I probably ate it.
I think you probably did.
Yeah.
In fact, I'm 99% sure you did.
I haven't done it in a long time, but I haven't made like a new close friend in a long time.
The only people I don't do that too is people who have really crazy allergies that I know about.
Like, do you trust me?
Yeah, no, I'm allergic to shellfish?
The problem is I don't even trust me. In that situation.
I'm like, does it when I have a friend who came over who has like a lot of severe allergies and I washed everything she touched before I handed it to her, even if it came out of the dishwasher.
Honestly smart.
Because I was like, you're not dying here.
Not here.
So I get it.
I guess I'm kind of a cedar waxwing in that way. Except I'm not trying to mate with them.
I just want them to be my friend.
You just want them to know you could provide for them.
And that I can provide them and that they can trust me to feed them appropriately.
That's important.
Yeah.
We love that.
Matriarchy.
I right?
The female, speaking of the matriarchy, the female does take the lead on choosing the nest site.
So their nest is a loosely built open cup of grass, twigs, plant fibers, moss, um, usually lined with like a finer material to get make a nice and comfy.
Um, but it's usually wedged into a horizontal branch or like a fork between 2 branches.
It is roughly at least 6 feet up, but can be up to 20 feet up.
Okay.
I feel like berry trees are not usually very big.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But they don't spend a lot of time on the ground, which is interesting.
They got to have that fresh fruit.
You get off the branch.
No fruit on the ground.
Thanks.
No.
Well, we'll get into it.
Um, but, um, sometimes they do get lazy like most other birds and they'll steal nest material straight from other birds' nests, but they don't like straight up steal the nest itself.
They just steal material.
The eggs are typically brute size is about 3 to 5 eggs.
They are pale blue gray eggs with some dark speckles.
So the word they use on birds of the world is sub-electical to oval.
But if you look at the pictures.
They're very like, I guess, sub-elliptical.
It's not the word I would have picked, but they're kind of more like a cone shape at the top a little bit.
Yeah, like a chicken egg.
A little more pointy, pointy at the top than some of the other ones that are more oval on both sides, I guess.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think too, that these are, I would describe them as just gray also, like very, very limited blueness.
Yeah, in the pictures, it's hard to tell, like maybe in person, they show up better as blue because I agree that it's quite difficult to see them as blue.
But I could see how they have that like bluish gray hue in some of the photos.
But the spots, I think, are quite interesting because so when we're thinking about the subelliptical shape. My new favorite word Towards the bottom, it's got like a darker gray vibe with more of maybe that blue tone and then it's got like pretty big splotches. Not massive, but when we think about speckled eggs, I feel like we're thinking like tiny, they're pretty big and they're more concentrated at the bottom.
And then they kind of move upward.
And it gets like more just white and more pale.
Yeah.
So it's got an interesting hombre on 2 parts.
And I guess I could see a little bit of blue towards the bottom.
I think I just have to see them in person.
It's hard to tell.
In the photo, also, like the background kind of influences how you see the color.
Yeah, exactly.
So maybe they do.
But I would say it's it's a very pale blue.
You don't expect a robin.
Not a robin's egg. Decidedly not.
So they incubate for about 2 weeks, usually 12 to 14 days, the chicks fledge around 2 weeks after that after hatching.
So 16 to 18 days after hatching, um, they will fledge.
Sometimes staying with the flock a bit longer because they're like having trouble with their flying.
But they're quite social, right?
Yes, very social.
They nest in loose little colonies rather than fiercely defending territory.
Um, but they're, they're basically never seen alone.
So like Cleo said, they're incredibly social.
They're almost never alone.
There's at least like 2 of them. In any given space.
It's very rare to see them all by themselves.
Nice.
So as I've mentioned repeatedly, their diet is overwhelmingly fruit.
It is up to 80 to 90% berries at some points of the year.
If they have access.
So they really like cedar and juniper berries, which I didn't even know cedars had berries, to be totally honest with you.
This is not a tree podcast.
The arbor cast.
But that's why they're called cedar waxwing is because cedar berries are like their favorite berry, and so they're named after their favorite berry.
It brings me back to the word we learned, which was frugivore. Which was similar to when we learned about the leaf eating name, which I can't remember now.
But Frugivore is an animal that like mostly thrives on fruit. Fruit.
Yeah.
They'll eat hawthornberries, dogwood berries, service berries, crab apples, which is that a berry?
No, it's not.
It's an apple.
Um, but they increasingly have been eating the invasive honeysuckle, which I mentioned earlier, changes the tips of their tails to a bright orange.
They occasionally will add insects in spring and summer.
Um, often catching them like while they're flying somewhere, um, if they're like going somewhere over water, but, um, they can be kind of, apparently some people describe them as like a clumsy swallow if you see them trying to get insects above water, which is hilarious. Like, I was not built for this. Swallows are incredibly majestic and like beautifully flying around very soaring, very, yeah, like the blue angels.
And then these guys are just like coming in like, oh, I just need a couple more protein.
Yeah, more proteins.
But as far as like climate impacting their diet, farmland has really shaped a lot of shrubland that they previously were using.
So there are borders of farmland where people have planted ornamental berry trees.
So in reality, even though our influence has impacted their original ecosystems, they've actually gotten more abundant food sources. In a lot of areas.
It's actually a rare case where change in human consumption of land has actually favored the species.
There is a dark side, the invasive honeysuckle, and Nandina berries are now a big part of many waxwings diets in those areas.
And as I mentioned, the honeysuckle shifts their tail color, which like, that's not really dark.
Like, that's, that sounds cool, whatever, you're slightly different than your friends.
But Nandina berries contain cyanide like compounds, and they can actually kill the waxwings if they eat too much.
Yeah, if you look it up, the 1st thing that comes up actually is a picture of a cedar whack.
I was looking up Nandina berries because I was like, what the fuck is that?
And it says, why Nandina berries and certain birds don't mix?
It's on a, um, it's like a blog post from treehugger.com.
But it's the 1st photo that comes up on Google Images is a cedar waxing eating one.
Yep.
That's so interesting.
I think it's because it probably doesn't contain enough cyanide to cause problems for the birds or animals who eat like occasional berries.
But if it's a bird that is a frugabore and is eating almost entirely fruit, then they're probably going to consume enough to kill them if they have access.
Well, and it sounds like, and again, I'm an asterisk, because I don't know how reliable tree hugger is, but it does look like this person interviewed someone who was like in veterinary medicine.
Oh, and they said that a lot of what happens is that these trees or bushes seem to bloom right as winter is coming up.
And therefore it's the last fruit available in a lot of places.
So it's like a last ditch episode.
They are binging it.
Yeah, they're binging it when there's nothing else. Because that's the last thing to go.
And so that's when they think they are turning to it.
And they become more so yeah, as they become more scarce than they move to this other food source.
Yeah, which is really interesting.
No, that makes so much sense.
So, yeah, that is a bummer.
Big bummer.
Most of their climate change is.. Impacts to their diet is actually positive, but the nandina berries are killers.
Yeah, and I'll link this thing just because at the bottom.
There's a whole list of trees that you can plant instead that are good for them.
Yes.
No, there's like this is one of the birds where if you love a berry, if you love a bush or a tree that gives you berries, you should put them in your yard and you'll get more cedar wax wings.
Not you saying if you love a bush.
And not George W.
Not George.
Or George Sr.
But I do have one more fun fact about waxwings and their diet of fruit.
They are famously kind of drinkers.
They get drunk on the berries.
The fermented ones?
Yes.
No way.
So it's hard to tell if this is like actually purposeful or not, but they eat so much fruit.
It's their majority of their diet.
So apparently when berries freeze and then thaw, they start fermenting.
And so this happens throughout, obviously, the seasons of, like, spring, summer, fall.
There's going to be a lot of changes in weather, and that will impact the fermentation.
Wax wings will genuinely get intoxicated and become disoriented, and are actually more prone in like the very high population areas.
They're prone to hitting people's windows.
Oh, no. Because they're drunk.
Because they're drunk.
Yes.
Oh no.
Don't drink and drive.
Don't drink and fly.
Don't drink it.
Definitely don't drink and fly.
Yeah, unfortunately, they like are way more prone to dying by hitting windows because they're just like, they're not just hitting it because your window's really clean.
Like they're hitting it because they're truly disordered.
Nope.
Drunk and disorderly?
Is that what you meant?
Disoriented is what I meant.
They're disorder.
They have eating disorders and it's the fruit.
Oh my god.
I actually knew a lot of fruititarians in my cult background. Actually makes so much sense to me.
Yeah, raw fruititarians too, which I guess why would you be cooking fruit?
Anyway, it's not the point.
I don't know. Some pineapple. That is really sad.
Also, I had a terrible thought that like, what if the 1st time you saw one was because it ran into your door.
I know.
How horrible would that be?
We can't let that happen.
We got to go look for them.
Well, I'll eat the berries that get them drunk so they can stay so far.
Hannah's gonna take one for the team and get fucked up for everyone else.
And I'd, again, they are an ounce.
So I don't know.
How many berries?
How many berries?
I would have to eat compared to them.
I'll Google it But it's crazy because yeah, that was one of the fun things that I'd learned about them is that they can get drunk, but I thought it was just like a fun, silly fact.
Um, that they were like, ooh, let's get lit.
These berries are fermented.
But instead, it actually causes problems for them.
Um, and there's like actual articles that I found.
Spring is in the air, and so are intoxicated birds.
Why backyard birds are getting drunk on fermented berries.
So, like, this is a this is a news item.
We could be getting more creative with those.
We could be doing better.
We could be doing better with the names of those articles.
Um, but yeah, the, it's a pretty interesting fact, um, I hope that most of them just get lit and have fun together and like pass their berries around and do some hopping on the branches.
But yeah, watch your windows because you could have a drunk flyer.
Yeah, nearby.
Or maybe don't watch, because what are you going to do about it?
Don't know.
Pad them with like, uh, like the, what do they have in the insane asylums?
I don't think they have those anymore, but like padded room.
We could just pad all of our windows with bubble wrap.
I don't know if that would help.
It'd have to be thick bubble wrap.
Yeah.
Or like a crash pad, like one of those things that actors fall on when they're doing stunts.
We just put it up in front of our windows.
Okay.
So then when they hit it, it's just a crash pad.
You might not be able to see out your window.
I actually don't know this, though. Be heavy enough for that to matter.
Yeah, will it just like still kill them?
Just the impact of that?
I don't know if I've ever mentioned this on this podcast, but I, Nor is Hannah a physicist.
No.
But if anybody is...
No, I guess.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Probably.
Also, I did Google it.
It sounds like you would need to eat like an impossible.
Literally, it says an impossible quantity of fermented fruit to actually start getting drunk.
Yeah.
So that's unfortunate.
Yeah.
And there's a lot of harmful bacteria.
So you'd probably get literally sick before you got drunk.
All right.
Well, something of the tryout later, maybe.
Yeah, we'll just let you know and test it later.
Well, no.
It's like those gas station pills.
I'm always like, what does that actually do?
Yeah, you know?
I do want to try them.
But there's a guy who's testing them who's a pharmacist or something important like that in a bunch of states and he's been going around taking gas station pills and sending them to labs.
And that's a fun time for me.
I mean, it does say in one of the articles that there's bird safe window treatments.
So maybe we need to look into that.
Like, what does that mean?
Maybe it makes it reflective?
No, that wouldn't help. Window treatment.
Bird safe window treatments must be applied to the outside of the glass to break up deadly reflections.
Wow.
So not reflective, effectively not reflective.
Effective treatments follow the 2 by 4 rule, vertical markers spaced 4 inches apart and horizontal markers space 2 inches apart.
Oh yeah.
It basically it's just like to make it look like it's adding things to it to make it look like it's either like a trellis or like dots so that the birds can identify that like something is there.
That's interesting.
That is so interesting.
I also think you could get that sticky film that looks like stained glass.
Yeah.
And that would probably work pretty well too.
But not for the drunks because if you're drunk.
Oh, looks pretty over there. Looks cool.
Yeah, he's like, is that a berry in that stained glass?
Conservation wise, they are on the least concern list.
So as of the 2019 breeding bird survey that we did, they had an estimated population of 60 to 800000 and stably increasing.
Well, you also made it sound like weed.
You and me did that.
We took this survey in 2019 when we 1st met.
We traveled the world together to...
We immediately survey birds.
And our numbers are insane.
Took us this long to start a podcast about it.
So as far as conservation tactics, there are population boosts that have happened largely accidentally, so there's been DDT bands, which obviously helped them if they were eating farmland stuff, but then also we've had the ornamental fruit trees that have increased across different areas.
So that's really helped them.
The real threat besides, it's not actually food source.
It's collisions.
So windows, cars, especially when flocks are feeding near a road or a yard, again, sometimes worsened by the drunk berry effect.
So what can you do?
You can, like, Cleo called out earlier.
You can plant native berry producers, like service berries, but just look up in your area, what is native, and what would be beneficial specifically for different, even like types of birds, if you're interested in seeing certain types in your area, but do not plant the honeysuckle, and especially do not plant the Nandina.
They're both invasive, and as we talked about, Nandinas explicitly can cause death.
So don't do that.
And then you can also look into bird safe window treatments.
Look it up.
And add more whimsy to your life.
By adding these bird safe window treatments.
Why not?
Yeah.
Wow. Love that.
Yeah.
As far as a group of them, so they can be just called a flock, which, you know, sure.
They can all that already. Called a flock.
But apparently they also can be called a museum.
I don't quite understand it, but also I saw, I can't remember if it was Birds of the Worlds or some Audubon list, but some people call them an earful of waxwings.
Because they're wax.
Oh, I thought it was maybe because they were really high pitched and that was kind of hard to like handle.
No.
Wow.
Well, I don't know that for certain, but my, no, yours makes more sense.
Wax, earwax.
I think that's mean to birds, but I do understand.
And I don't I think you're probably right.
Wow, that is fascinating.
Fin.
A museum is cool.
Yeah, I'm like, I guess.
I mean, it makes sense.
They look like they belong in a museum.
They don't look real.
So that's it.
Those are my those are my interesting facts about the wax wings.
There are other types of waxwings that are similarly related.
So if we went like national, um, so just.. Like you and I like went national, like international superstar, like that.
Yeah.
But if we were just national, there's Bohemian Waxwings, which are almost identical.
And then there's, if we went international, there's Japanese waxwings.
I saw the Japanese ones because I accidentally pressed next on there.
Really cool.
They are like, I don't know if it's just the picture they chose, but they look a little like chubbier in a cute way.
Like, I think they're a little smaller.
And then the red accents is more pronounced on their face and on their wings and their tail, instead of having any of the like yellow accents, basically, they don't.
It's all just like red accents.
And their wings are much pointier.
Yes.
They're not quite as like sleek because they've got a bit more.
They're just more points, more pointy points.
And as far as Bohemians, again, it would probably be hard to tell the difference if you're just like looking, because they do have the same yellow accent on the tail tip.
However, The big distinguishing is that their belly is entirely gray.
There's no butter yellow fade.
Okay.
So that's kind of the most distinguishing thing.
Wow.
What do you think?
Do you have any questions?
And do you have a person or archetype?
Do you think this looks like?
So no questions other than I loved that.
Not a question, but it's my podcast and I can do what I want.
I love them.
I think they're Hannah introduced me to this bird.
I didn't even know this was a real thing, which I've introduced a lot of people to this bird.
A lot of people are like, what are you talking about?
Well, and you made it sound like when you were like, this is my bucket list bird.
I thought we were going to have to go to like a faraway land to a far away jungle.
The east coast.
Barely.
I mean, if you look at the map, technically everywhere.
They would, you know, be here.
You'd have to probably try harder over here.
And I did see briefly on Birds of the World.
It sounds like they're maybe an east and west population, which is interesting.
So, but I really thought we would have to go far and wide to find this bird, but it seems like they're around.
And in fact, one may run into you before you run into it based on what I can tell.
So I'm excited because I want I want you to see one and I want to see one.
And honestly looking at the pictures is making me want to Google like what lens do I need to take photos of birds?
Because all of the photos of see their wax wings are so good that you're like, I could do that.
You know, but it's really just them.
Yeah, they're just gorgeous.
Yeah.
And as far as pop culture, I imagine you have something.
I do kind of feel like Zorro was a good one because of the mask.
Yeah.
It's very specific, that like tie back burglar mask that we see in cartoons.
Like, imagine you have a black, teeny, tiny, like 3 inch wide.
Right.
It's not a full face mask.
No, it's just the little one over the eyes.
And you cut it out in the eyes.
It's like that So I think that's a good one, but I'm interested to hear what you have.
Well, and he's kind of a little bit romantic.
They pass berries to each other, which feels very like romance, Zorro vibes.
I agree.
Um, And I also thought maybe like if you've seen the princess bride, the dread pirate Roberts, which is not.
I don't I forget his real name.
Wesley.
The problem with both of them is that they wear all black outside of it.
And so I was like, I'm just, I was like Googling masked heroes, masked people.
Mask heroes, masked, to this.
And there's quite a few people who, nope.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Actually, people, they say.
Yeah.
There's quite a few who wear masks, but this specific type of mask is a little more unique to the Zorro pirate situation.
However, one that I did find that I was like, oh, I can kind of see this.
It's a little bit of a stretch, but Mr. Incredible.
Oh, because he has the black mask.
And then he also has the red and yellow.
I mean, I don't hate it.
I think he's definitely not, Mr. Incredible.
Right.
No, I don't hate it, though.
I'm kind of into it.
I think actually, though, I was thinking, what's his little Incredible boy?
Oh, yeah.
His little son?
Because if you think kind of.
No, no, no, not his son, the one that turns evil, but if you think about him and he, not only that, but he's got the crest.
Yeah.
I kind of think Incredible Boy.
But Incredibly sucks.
I'm like, I don't want to do that to them.
Spoiler alert, he's bad.
If you haven't seen the Incredibles.
You should.
It's one of the best It's so good really good.
Also, though, yeah, I do think the vibes of Mr. Incredible.
The vibe.
Yeah, I'm on board with all of them, but I think, yeah.
Like, you could see him just getting, like, wasted on some berries and, like, running into a window.
Exactly.
He would crash through the window, but I could.
But I also kind of think because specifically Zorro is so sleek and like very um...
You know what I mean?
Sneaky, but in a hot way.
I feel like Zorro vibes. Do also really make a lot of sense.
They do.
They do.
If you listen to this, let us know what you think.
Is it more Zoro or is it giving Mr. Incredible?
Well, and then the other piece, like, the Incredibles are kind of a unit.
They come together.
It's the whole family is super together.
And these guys are not very solo.
They are often seen at least in pairs, if not in a small museum.
So yeah, I think I could go either way.
And that's why I was like, yeah, I don't know.
I could see it both.
Maybe we'll do a poll.
We'll put out a poll to see who thinks, which makes the most sense.
Yeah, you definitely know how to do that on Instagram.
And if you don't follow us on Instagram, followed @birds on birds on birds on birds, or birds on birds podcast.
It's birds on birds, but a zero is a zero.
Right.
Birds on birds podcast is our email and there is no.
Zero.
I would say stop doom scrolling, and I was gonna say get tipsy, but I think maybe if you're gonna get tipsy, just stay inside.
Stop doom scrolling and have a designated driver.
Safely drink.
Yeah. Always have a DD get intoxicated.
Don't eat fruit off the floor.
That's only birds can do that safely.
And even the waxwings rarely do that.
They usually eat from the branches.
They only do it after they've had a breakup.
Like a really bad breakup.
They're going through something.
So don't do that either.
Yeah.
But do eat more fruit.
Yeah.
Stop doom scrolling and eat fruit.
Truly.
Stop doom scrolling and put bird safe window treatments on your window.
Oh, that's a good one.
Yeah.
And add more whimsy to your life.
Call it adding whimsy by adding bird safe window treatments and make it sexy for nature.
Yes.
And with that.
Make it safe.
And with that, stay cool, bird boy.