The Bohemian Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) is a soft pinkish-beige bird about 18–21 cm long, with a wingspan around 32–35 cm and a weight of roughly 50–75 g, putting it in the same size class as a starling. Its most striking features are the prominent crest on the crown, a black mask running to a point through the eye, a yellow-tipped tail, and black-and-white wings marked with yellow and white. Small red, wax-like tips on the wing feathers give the species its name, and the plush, silky plumage makes it unmistakable — in flight it gives a compact, starling-like impression.
The call is a persistent buzzing, tinkling trill, often rendered as a thin "sirrr", and a flock produces a collective bell-like sound that frequently gives the birds away before they are seen. Bohemian Waxwings breed in the coniferous forests of northern Sweden, building a cup-shaped nest of twigs, lichen and moss near the top of a spruce and laying around 5 eggs; during the breeding season they feed largely on insects caught in flight, a sharp contrast to their winter diet. In autumn and winter they appear across Sweden, Norway and Denmark in large nomadic flocks that strip rowan, whitebeam, hawthorn and windfall fruit from trees — a single flock can empty a berry tree within days. Numbers reaching southern Sweden vary greatly between years and are driven by the berry crop further north, with poor harvests triggering large southward invasions. Overripe, fermented berries can leave the birds mildly intoxicated, sometimes causing collisions with windows. The species is classified as Least Concern (LC).
Read about this species in Swedish →