![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/cedar-waxwing-9135-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"cedar-waxwing-9135-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nYesterday for\u00a0the first time I was able to physically distinguish a male\u00a0from a female Cedar Waxwing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I’ve been seeing waxwings in this tree in the mountains\u00a0for days now but until yesterday I’ve never been able to get any decent shots of them. But just\u00a0before this\u00a0photo was taken we saw a waxwing carry nesting material into the very dense middle of the tree so I figured I’d hang around for a while and see if I could get lucky with one of them. I never did photograph one with nesting material (although I came very close\u00a0that first time) but this\u00a0bird eventually\u00a0came out from the interior of the tree\u00a0and sat on this exposed branch for at least 12 minutes.<\/p>\n It didn’t give me much pose variety but here\u00a0it had\u00a0fluffed up a little and the resulting pot-bellied look amuses me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Eventually it did turn around on the perch which gave me a slightly different look<\/p>\n Once again the wind was blowing and this long branch with relatively heavy leaves on\u00a0one end of it was bouncing up and down like a teeter-totter for the entire time. Looking through my lens it actually made me dizzy as I tried to keep the bird in the frame and well composed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1000, f\/14 ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Four minutes after I left the previous bird and drove down the road I encountered a single waxwing perched in another tree a little further\u00a0away. I took a few shots but when\u00a0I took my eye off of it for a couple of seconds to look at my camera screen\u00a0and check my exposure I looked back and there were two of them<\/em>, perched side by side.\u00a0The second waxwing\u00a0had\u00a0flown\u00a0in while I was looking away.<\/p>\n In Cedar Waxwings the sexes are very similar\u00a0so in the past I’ve never been able to reliably distinguish males from females based on physical features\u00a0but with these two sitting right next to each other it’s much easier.<\/p>\n There’s a noticeable physical difference between these two – can you spot it? No, it has nothing to do with\u00a0their relative size –\u00a0the bird in front may look larger and\u00a0stockier but that’s only\u00a0because it’s fluffed\u00a0up a little.<\/p>\n Males can be distinguished from females because they have a darker and more extensive black chin-patch so the male is the bird closest to us and the other waxwing is almost certainly his mate. This difference is difficult to discern in the field with a single bird but\u00a0with two of them next to each other it becomes much easier.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday for the first time I was able to physically distinguish a male from a female Cedar Waxwing.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/cedar-waxwing-9240-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"cedar-waxwing-9240-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/cedar-waxwing-9325-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"cedar-waxwing-9325-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n