Give Me Some Fruit

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We ran across several Cedar Waxwings while hiking this week. They have a thing for fruit (See the Wikipedia entry below).

The cedar waxwing eats berries and sugary fruit year-round, including "dogwood, serviceberry, cedar, juniper, hawthorn, and winterberry",[6] 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. They eat berries whole. They sometimes fly over water to catch insects. The cedar waxwing is sometimes responsible for significant damage to commercial fruit farms and thus can be considered a pest, especially because it feeds in large groups.

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.

Sometimes, cedar waxwings will eat fruit that is overripe and has begun to ferment, intoxicating the bird.

~ Rick


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