Over the past three or 4 days the Cedar Waxwings (up to 30 at a time) have visited our water feature as I've described in previous posts. When rapidly leaving the water for whatever reasons, one or two of them seem to crash into our living room windows after they take off (the window is 15-20 feet away). There are feeders of various sorts in front of and on the windows and dark behind so that there is no question that the windows do not provide a clear path to freedom. None of the birds seem to be adversely affected by the noisy collisions but they do leave a feather or two and usually drips of water. Most in the flock will go a few feet higher and clear the roof but a few from each rapid dispersal seem to misjudge. Recent correspondence to me indicated that others of you have experienced similar collisions from waxwings. Judging from the fact that most seem to leave water marks on the window, I was wondering if the additional weight from the water might cause them to misjudge the trajectory of take off and cause these crashes possibly from the less experienced birds. With the flock mentality of waxwings, the wet members of the group might take off with the rest and follow their take-off line without taking into account the extra weight. On the other hand, the back part of the flock may not figure things out well and see some window reflections and try to follow them. Any data or thoughts on this?


David Gluckman
811 22nd St.
Pt. Townsend, WA 98368
360 379-0360