It was winter of 1996. The David Cup and McIlroy Award birding competitions were in full swing in the Ithaca, New York, area where Cornell University and its famous Lab of Ornithology are located. We were in the midst of it all, along with our birders colleagues, scouring the landscape to find new species to add to our 1996 lists—the David Cup, within the confines of the Cayuga Lake Basin, and the McIlroy Award keeping to the boundaries of the City of Ithaca boundaries.

In that part of New York state, bohemian waxwings were quite rare and occurred very irregularly. We had been living in Ithaca for seven years and had yet to see a bohemian waxwing there. So when a few bohemian waxwings appeared with some cedar waxwings not far from the Cornell University campus, the news spread quickly among the birding community.

If you are not yet familiar with bohemian waxwings, this may be your time. Its cousin, the cedar waxwing, is more well known, and shares the bohemian’s sleek plumage, obvious crest, black mask and throat, and yellow tail tip of tail. Cedar waxwings are widespread and abundant year-round residents of Maine. The bohemian waxwing is the larger and boisterous. It’s also even more colorful. Bohemian’s sport cinnamon-colored undertail feathers and also whites and yellows in the wings.

We enjoy calling bohemian waxwings “grizzly bear birds.” Don’t worry, they won’t attack you, but they do share much of their North American breeding range with grizzly bears, nesting from Alaska across northwestern Canada. They also nest across northern Europe and Asia.

Numbers of bohemian waxwings seem to have increased over the last 50 years, with more birds shifting south in winter into the eastern U.S. Their increase may in part be tied to the banning of DDT in the 1970s. More recently, researchers speculate that the rise in plantings of ornamental berry and apple bushes and trees in urban and suburban neighborhoods may have increased the winter food supplies for them.

Now, almost every year, at least a few bohemian waxwings drop south into Maine in winter. Some years, they come south in big numbers. Over the past few weeks, flocks have been seen with more frequency across the state, with flocks numbering as high as several hundred. They’ve been seen in Wiscasset, Damariscotta, Rockland, and many other places slightly more inland.

Both cedar and bohemian waxwings are famous for their wanderings. Flocks may arrive one day and stay for a few days or a week until they’ve essentially eaten every crabapple and other frozen ornamental fruit in the area. Then, just as suddenly, they depart, on the go in search of the next fruit bonanza.

Back in 1996, when the bohemian waxwings came to town, it was a wonderful, fun time for the birders of Ithaca. Many of us got to soak in views of those beautiful birds and share the experience with the community of like-minded bird lovers found there. It was so memorable that birder and graphic designer Diana Tessaglia-Hymes even designed and printed a commemorative t-shirt celebrating the birds and the camaraderie of the birding competitions!

We found a handful of bohemian waxwings over the weekend hanging out in a flock of about a hundred cedar waxwings in Gardiner. There should be more to come for all of us to enjoy!  

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Vice President of Boreal Conservation for National Audubon. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. He is a coauthor of the seminal “Birds of Maine” book and author of the “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.” His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a nonprofit membership organization working statewide to protect the nature of Maine. Both are widely published natural history writers and are the authors of the popular books, “Maine’s Favorite Birds” (Down East Books) and “Birds of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao: A Site and Field Guide,” (Cornell University Press).