Thousands Of Bohemian Waxwings Invade The City Of Anchorage In Alaska Every Winter And It’s A Sight To Be Seen
Every winter in Anchorage thousands of tiny birds take to the sky in large, impressive flocks. The Bohemian Waxwings are a beautiful bird that travels in large flocks and loves to dine on Mountain Ash berries in Anchorage, Alaska. Keep your eyes peeled as you move about the city to see these Bohemian Waxwings in Alaska dancing in the sky! You’ll have to keep an eye out if you want to see these pretty birds in action while they’re in town. They pass through pretty quickly, but you will love seeing them when you do. Their flocks are simply majestic and fill the sky with their lovely songs.
Bohemian Waxwings got their name from their propensity to roam.
They frequently reside outside of the cities and appear in Anchorage in late October or early November. While late fall is most common for their migration, they might make the trip in the early winter. In recent years they've arrived even later, sometimes not until December.
You will find them flying together to both roost and eat.
During the winter, these birds congregate together in large groups numbering in the hundreds or sometimes thousands, in either trees or bushes. The pretty flock members go everywhere together!
They descend on Anchorage each year for a couple of weeks, so keep an eye out so you can see them while they're in town.
Anchorage's record year for visiting Waxwings was the winter of 2009-2010, when 22,245 Bohemian Waxwings were recorded. They landed in yards and parks all across the city, eating their fill!
Mountain Ash berries are one of their favorite foods, and the tasty fruit is always the birds' first choice when it's available.
If Mountain Ash berries aren't available, they will eat crab apples, elderberries, and crowberries. Each Waxwing can eat large amount of berries, sometimes even eating several hundred in a day! That's more than double its own weight.
These birds have a fantastic liver to process the huge amount of sugar they intake in a single sitting.
Occasionally however, you will find one of them slightly intoxicated, unable to keep up with the sugar conversion their tiny little bodies need to perform. In fact, a group in the Yukon sets up "drunk tanks" where the birds can sleep off the effects of the ethyl alcohol the fermenting berries can produce.
They are tiny, beautiful little birds, with a crest on their head and grayish bodies.
Their song is high and gentle, and many people enjoy the song of the birds as they sing in chorus while they flit from tree to tree. They are magic to behold as they dive through the neighborhoods in Anchorage, clearing out the Mountain Ash berries where they find them. If you take a hike in nature near their favorite spots, you will love hearing their song and seeing their lovely plumage.
Waxwings travel long distances each year, which helps disperse the seeds that they eat. They are certainly an important part of the ecosystems they fly over.
Not much is known about where they go and how they live the rest of the year, but Anchorage citizens love seeing them each year. You can also see these lovely birds all the way up through Fairbanks, descending wherever they find delicious berries!
Have you seen any Bohemian Waxings in Alaska? What did you think when you saw them? Have you seen them yet this year? Where is your favorite place to go birding in Alaska? Let us know in the comments below!
If you want to spot more beautiful birds here in the Last Frontier, check out this abandoned naval base in Alaska. There is plenty of natural beauty to be enjoyed in our gorgeous state, from stunning vistas to, of course, our beautiful feathered friends in the sky.
Address: Anchorage, AK, USA
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Megan McDonald is a writer, photographer, and owner of HuMu Media, an Alaska-based media company. She spends her free time traveling with her husband and daughter, and loves to see and experience new things!
