I love Cedar Waxwings! There one of, if not my most, favorite bird. I'm not sure why though. They're absolutely beautiful for one thing, dressed in subtle shades of buff, yellow, and blue-gray accented by a tail that looks like it was dipped in yellow paint. Little bright red "wax" on the wings, a black bandit's mask, and a little tuft complete the package. But, a lot of birds are beautiful, so why is this one one of my favorites?

I cannot say for sure, but I do have memories of being a kid in central New Jersey and climbing the mulberry tree in the backyard in August, and sharing that tree - and its bounty of tart berries - with dozens of Cedar Waxwings. As I perched precariously on the largest limbs, the waxwings fed daintly on the smallest twigs a few feet from my face. Was this my "initiator bird" - the specie or species that causes a birder to become a birder?

Well, I can't really say for sure why it's my favorite bird. But this morning, as I walked around the scrub behind Kettle Cove and in Crescent Beach State Park in Cape Elizabeth, I reflected as I enjoyed dozens upon dozens of waxwings stuffing their faces, and the faces of their fledglings, on the berries of the invasive alien - but good for waxwings - Amur Honeysuckles bushes. Waxwings are one of our latest nesters, as they time the arrival of their kids to coincide with the late summer and fall bounty of fruit, their primary food sources. Look for bushes such as honeysuckle, or natives such as chokeberry and Mountain Ash, and see for yourself what a beautiful bird the Cedar Waxwing is.