We had some beautiful visitors during this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. During our early morning bird count, we saw a large flock of birds roosting in a sweet gum tree in our yard.
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| Birds roosting in sweet gum tree. |
The sun was behind the birds, so we had a hard time trying to figure out what kind of birds they were.
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| Cedar Waxwing in silhouette |
Later that afternoon, we were working on a project in the garage. We have three yaupon holly trees that hang over our driveway. This time of year, the trees are filled with red berries. We heard a rush of wings. The yaupons were covered in birds!
These were the same flock of birds that we had seen earlier in the day. They were the beautiful Cedar Waxwing. They came to eat our yaupon berries!
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| Cedar Waxwings |
We watched them for over an hour. They gobbled up the berries, eating them whole!
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| Cedar Waxwing eating a yaupon berry |
Dozens of birds would fly in to eat the berries. Then that flock would fly away and another group would come to eat. Today, our yaupon holly only have a few berries left on them!
Here's a very short video of a waxwing eating berries:
Cedar waxwings winter in Texas. They migrate here from northern states and Canada. These birds love to eat berries. They come to our yard to eat our yaupon berries and cherry laurel berries.
It is important for those of us with yards to plant native trees, bushes, and plants that help birds and animals survive. If you would like to learn more about gardening for birds, please click here:
Building a Bird-friendly Yard
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