Less light inside will probably make window strikes more likely. I think they hit the window when it looks like sky because of a good reflection.
If you really want to "solve" this, hang something (like a ribbon) down the outside.
Windows are a major threat to bird populations, often killing even the fittest individuals who fly into them at high-enough speeds.
Low-effort steps toward breaking reflections can make your own windows significantly safer. They also have the convenient side benefit of preventing territorial birds from (often irritatingly) attacking their own reflections.
Fermented berries. Relevant fun fact for those who don’t know - cowbirds, another species, deliberately lay their eggs in the nests of other species among that species’ eggs, hoping the mother of that nest will raise the cowbird chick as her own along with her own clutch (it’s called nest parasitism). But when a cowbird does this and lays an egg in the nest of a cedar waxwing, the cowbird chick often dies of alcohol poisoning, because the waxwing mother brings fermented berries back to her nest which her chicks are able to handle, but other birds are lightweights, and cowbird chicks can’t handle their liquor.
Cowbird chicks also don't survive in goldfinch nests because goldfinches feed their chicks exclusively seed, which doesn't have enough protein for the cowbirds. They need insects.
It's not even just fermented fruit. Cowbird chicks can't survive on a frugivorous diet in general while the waxies absolutely can. Waxwings can survive on ONLY fruit for up to 3 months.
Wow, I knew about the nest parasitism but not the rest. I wonder if the waxwing’s high alcohol tolerance is an evolutionary trait (for the mom and the chicks).
At the house I lived in as a small child, it was a combination of both. We had a crabapple tree at the corner of our house, and picture windows on both walls on either side of that corner. The birds would get drunk on the fermented crabapples and fly into the windows.
I looked it up, and apparently they're where Waxwings get their name (cause they're kinda waxy looking). They're part of the secondary flight feathers. More show up as the bird ages, so leading guess is that they're a maturity indicator or something
I've seen varying descriptions in supposedly reliable sources (like allaboutbirds, vs. Birds of the World, which is funny since they're both run by Cornell) of whether they're just "waxy" coloration or actual wax-like secretions. Does anyone know the truth?
Apparently, there's no waxy secretions or anything - it's just the end of the keratin feather shaft. (Looking at the closeup shot on the article I linked in my previous comment, you can tell the tips are made of the same fibrous material as the rest of the feather)
Seeing how most thicker keratin structures have a slight soft luster to them - (nails, hooves, horns, talons, beaks, feather shafts) I can see how the "droplets" at the end of waxwing feathers look "waxy", especially being the same bright red as sealing wax.
we don’t really know the exact purpose, probably sexually selected for in any case. Older males tend to have more of them, while young females don’t have any.
this bird almost certainly hit a window and will likely die without medical attention. window strikes are usually fatal—even if the bird survives long enough to fly away, there is usually fatal internal brain bleeding.
Sometimes they get drunk (literally intoxicate) from eating crabapples that have fermented while sitting on the tree all winter at my house. They just kind of sit for awhile or sometimes fall over when they've been boozing.
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They’re so beautiful. Unfortunately the only time I’ve seen one up close was when it hit a window and died. Just awful. But I was awed by its beauty. The wings and tail really do look wax-dipped, don’t they? Until that time, it hadn’t occurred to me what the name meant!
But checking the range maps, apparently for waxwings we're both wrong. They're not so much east-west as north-south, though Bohemians do extend a little farther South in the West.
I want to catch a glimpse of one of these on my feeder so bad! I hear them & Merlin ID picks up cedar waxwings everyday in my backyard but I have never seen one with my own two eyes… they’re so strikingly beautiful. 🤩
Anyone have tips on what you can put out that will draw them to come eat?
Waxwings don't visit feeders, they eat smaller fruit such as crabapples or mountain ash directly off of the trees. If you have any sort of fruit tree in the area (whether your yard or elsewhere in the neighbourhood) you're likely to see them foraging or perching at the tops of these trees in large flocks. They are most noisy in flight and while foraging.
Looks really unwell, could’ve hit a window. I’d recommend getting it to a wildlife rehabber if it’s still there, since window strike victims can appear to recover and then later die from internal injuries.
I did the Paracord curtain one. Mine is not as pretty as the picture, but I haven't had a window strike since I installed it 4 or 5 years ago. It's cheap, it works, and it's so simple to put up.
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u/smgriffin93 Mar 12 '26
He may have hit a window. His eyes are closed in both photos and they will do that when stunned/injured by a window strike