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Waxwings Flock to Junipers and Mountain-Ash
by Stephen Jones, Boulder County Audubon Society, co-author of the Peterson Field Guide to the North American Prairie and Colorado Nature Almanac.

Mountain Ash - Sorbus scopulina, photo by Connie Holsinger.

Imagine having several hundred of your neighbors suddenly descend on your kitchen, sweeping every scrap of food from your refrigerator and storage shelves. That's how wintering Townsend's solitaires must feel when a flock of Bohemian waxwings homes in on their winter juniper grove.

Both male and female solitaires sing throughout the snowy months as they defend foraging territories containing fruiting junipers. Their finch-like winter song is meant to warn away other solitaires, not to attract a mate. In contrast to the stay-at-home solitaires, Bohemian waxwings are decidedly nomadic, roaming over large areas of North America as they search for winter fruit crops. During winters when food is scarce up north, these wandering fruit-eaters may become the most abundant songbird in parts of Colorado.

Cedar Waxwing enjoying winter berries, photo by Bill Schmoker.

The waxwing flocks resemble giant black amoebas as they wheel through the sky before alighting on a juniper bush. Some flocks even set up juniper "berry brigades," passing the fruits from beak to beak. No one is sure of the motivation behind this behavior, but food sharing probably serves to cement social bonds in the flock.

Bohemian waxwings also flock to the bright red berries of mountain-ash (Sorbus scopulina). This delicate tree in the rose family grows naturally in cool, shady canyons in the Front Range foothills and will thrive in your garden with a little watering. Its holly-like berries are rejected by most birds, so the berries often hang from the tree's bare branches deep into the winter.

Native junipers (known to some as "red cedars") require no additional water. Three tree-like species, the Rocky Mountain juniper (Sabina scopulorum), oneseed juniper (S. monosperma), and Utah juniper (S. osteosperma), grow naturally in Colorado.

Rocky Mountain Juniper - Sabina scopulorum, photo by Connie Holsinger.

Steve Frye of Boulder's Wild Bird Center says you can attract Bohemian and cedar waxwings to your garden by planting any trees and shrubs that bear fruit late into the fall and by installing a heated birdbath. One of Steve's customers spreads applesauce near his feeder. But if you want to go native, junipers and mountain-ash are lovely ornamentals that can be counted on to provide winter sustenance for waxwings and other wildlife.