Burt Guttman wrote:

>Yesterday I observed a fairly large flock of Cedar Waxwings (couldn't count
>them, but perhaps 20 or so) feeding in a tall tree with small blossoms in
>Olympia, and I wondered what the heck they were doing in a flock, which I
>associate with winter behavior, at this time of year. What I thought was
>especially interesting was what looked like courting behavior; sometimes two
>birds would sit close together on a branch and engage in a kind of mutual
>"kissing," where one bird would peck its bill into the open bill of the
>other and then a few seconds later the second bird would reciprocate. It
>looked almost like one bird feeding the other, but I'm quite sure there was
>no food involved. Could this have been the establishment of mating pairs,
>which would then leave the flock to start nesting? I don't really
>understand how they could continue to form a roaming flock for feeding if
>they were nesting in many places distant from one another.

Burt, I think you interpreted what you saw correctly. Cedar Waxwings are
actually rather late nesters, probably so their young are fledging just as
many trees and shrubs are fruiting. They migrate in flocks, and the flocks
have just arrived here for the spring. I also have trouble relating to
waxwings roaming while nesting - doesn't make sense (not that *everything*
in nature makes sense at first glance). However, they are not territorial
during the breeding season, they do wander well away from their nest site
to feed at fruiting trees and shrubs, and they *are* known to form little
flocks even while breeding, but it's only because all the birds in the area
converge on a particular fruit crop.

Waxwings are well-known to practice courtship feeding, and they do so even
in spring migration, the male hopping toward the female and passing food to
her, and she reciprocates with exactly the same movement, the food item
passed back and forth a number of times until the female finally swallows
it. Sometimes this "courtship-hopping" involves inedible items, and
sometimes no object is actually being passed.

The second paragraph is courtesy of the Birds of North America account on
the species.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html