This is Illinois Extension’s Voice of the Wild. A new wild voice in just a moment, so find someplace quiet, take a deep breath, and enjoy.
Heard alone, this high pitched call could be easy to miss, but the bird that makes it is quite social so its nearly always heard as one part of a larger soprano chorus. A roaming flock takes a diet of insects, fruit, fruit, and more fruit. Its one of the most frugivorous birds in illinois. Its courtship display is famously cute, with the male and female passing a berry back and forth, occasionally with a little hop. While they have a crisp black mask and a strong yellow stripe at the end of their tail, the rest of their plumage is a subtle mix of yellow, brown, and gray. Look for them in scrubby areas with lots of Eastern Red Cedars or in neighborhoods with plenty of fruit-bearing trees.
This is the cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) from the family Bombycillidae. While the cedar waxwing often sings smoothly, it can also sing with a staccato trill. Here’s the cedar waxwing again, first with a strong trill and then with the smoother calls.
Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for our bird sounds. And thank you for tuning in to learn a new wild voice with Illinois Extension.