Cedar Waxwings plundering fruit, courting

 

My front yard Downy Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea). It's an older plant and may be on the far side of middle age. But it still has seasons where it produces a bounty of sugary berries, and this is one of those years. And lots of serviceberry fruit means lots of birds.

Yes! Says a Cedar Waxwing as it enters the tree. Such an environment, to a waxwing, is akin to a kid falling into a giant bowl of M & M's. And it isn't just waxwings that visit. American Robins, Eastern Bluebirds, Gray Catbirds and others drop in for snacks. But I must confess that the suave waxwings are my favorite.

As always, click the photo to enlarge

A waxwing ponders which tasty fruit to pluck. The crop is just beginning to ripen, and from my observations, they like them ripe and red. Given the amount of fruit on this treelet, I should have waxwing visitors for some time to come.

A waxwing with freshly plucked berry. It'll be down his/her hatch soon. Fortunately, waxwings are pretty tame, and I can stand in one of my garage bays with door open and shoot them from there. They know I'm there but aren't bothered a bit. Even people walking by on the sidewalk - closer than my position - often don't flush them.

A pair in the act of passing a berry. This courtship feeding is a pair-bonding ritual, and I've seen it a number of times over the past few days, but it is difficult to photograph, usually because the birds are obstructed by branches and foliage when they do it. I'll keep at it and try for better material. Anyway, the fruit exchange is usually just once - probably mostly male to female - but this case was unusual in that they swapped the fruit back and forth five times, with the initial recipient (her, I assume) finally eating it.

Cedar Waxwings are effective frugivores, with an insatiable appetite for sugary fruit like these serviceberries. While they efficiently digest the soft parts of the fruit, the seeds probably mostly pass through their systems intact, to be expelled elsewhere - probably, in many cases, a long distance from where they were harvested. So, in addition to pleasing us with their suave elegance (certainly the least important thing that waxwings do), they are important agents of dispersal for plants.