{"id":88645,"date":"2020-08-18T05:18:19","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T11:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=88645"},"modified":"2020-08-18T12:47:44","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T18:47:44","slug":"why-do-some-cedar-waxwings-lack-red-waxy-tips-on-their-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/18\/why-do-some-cedar-waxwings-lack-red-waxy-tips-on-their-wings\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Some Cedar Waxwings Lack Red Waxy Tips On Their Wings?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is something I hadn’t even noticed until fairly recently. I need to pay more attention.<\/p>\n

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As we’ve discussed in the fairly recent past Cedar Waxwings have red waxy tips (appendages) on the ends of some of their wing secondaries. Their waxy appearance is the source of the “waxwing” portion of their common name. The number of waxy tips varies from bird to bird. This one has seven of them on its left wing.<\/p>\n

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But this waxwing that I posted last month has only four.<\/p>\n

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I’ve known for some time that the number of red tips varies from bird to bird but until fairly recently I was unaware that some Cedar Waxwings don’t have any waxy tips at all. It was a slow awakening for me. I noticed it in a bird or two but I didn’t think about it much until I photographed this one last month.<\/p>\n

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Then two days ago I photographed this waxwing without any red tips and I became curious about an explanation – which birds don’t have them and why don’t they have them? Is it a random phenomenon or is it related to sex or age or diet or something else?<\/p>\n

Cornell’s Birds of The World makes the following observations on the subject mostly related to age but I found some of it a little difficult to interpret (actually, downright confusing).<\/p>\n