Cedar Waxwing Courtship Behavior
Cedar Waxwing couple
By: Pat Coate
In May the Cattaraugus Bird Club had some outings at the Eschelman Tract of Pfeiffer Nature Center. During one of these outings I had the opportunity to observe this pair of cedar waxwings. They engaged in the classic “side-hop” and mate feeding courtship behavior described in the Stokes Nature Guides A Guide to Bird Behavior Volume II.
This behavior consisted of the birds perched near each other. One, with food, would hop towards the other and pass the food to its mate. The second bird would hop away, then hop back towards the first bird and food would be exchanged again.
