Passerines 2

Mockers to Invaders

Vocal Prowess

Biotic Invasion

Superb Coloration

Cedar Waxwing tail tips, normally yellow, can be partly orange (as seen here) owing to the incorporation into developing tail feathers of rhodoxanthin, a red pigment found in Tartarian Honeysuckle berries that waxwings frequently consume during molt. This adult must have increasingly fed on honeysuckle berries as the molt of its tail proceeded from central tail feathers to outer ones. Note also waxy tips to wing feathers (secondaries), which give the species its name.

Wax-like wing tips are feathers with fused terminal barbs

Spectactular Migration

Kimura et al. 2002. Molecular Ecology 11:1605-1616

Paxton et al. 2007. Auk 124:162-175

Diversity of Blackbirds

Orians and Angell 1985 Blackbirds of the Americas. U. W. Press

Interspecific Territoriality

Variety of Nesting Dispersions

Irruptive Movements

Biotic Homogenization