Cedar Waxwing

I had no opportunity to go anywhere with the camera until about 5.30 in the afternoon; I took my camera with a lens suitable for catching the horses galloping up the field as they were turned out, but these little birds caught my eye flashing about in an old oak tree, feasting on mistletoe berries. Well outside the range of my lens, this is the only one which is 1/2 decent, so this is my blip for Friday!

The Cedar Waxwing is about 6" long; he eats berries and sugary fruit year-round, with insects becoming an important part of the diet in the breeding season. Its fondness for the small cones of the Eastern Redcedar (a kind of juniper) gave this bird its common name. When the end of a twig holds a supply of berries that only one bird at a time can reach, members of a flock may line up along the twig and pass berries beak to beak down the line so that each bird gets a chance to eat. Normally they just look like little beige coloured birds, but when the sun catches them, as it did here, they turn to gold.

I hope everyone is enjoying the Easter Holidays.