Perhaps you have an idea or story about the Cedar Waxwing that you would like to share. Some research has shown this alcohol level to be as high as 3.8%, approximately the same as a beer. Cedar and other waxwings are known to gorge on fermented berries and other fruits, leading them to appear drunk. I immediately identified it as a Cedar Waxwing. Sapsuckers visit orchards in winter to eat old apples still hanging on the trees. To do this, we looked on the e-bird website, where bird watchers report up-to-the-minute bird sightings. Woodpeckers eat fruit and berries along with their typical insect and nut diet. Yellow-rumped Warblers, that spend the winter farther north than most others eat berries and … The protective skins of overwintered fruits will often-times crack during a frost, exposing the natural sugars to the air, and to the naturally occurring airborne yeasts and bacteria. Update, December 11, 2014, on where the waxwing was released: During the winter, waxwings spend all their time in large flocks, but this one was found all alone. We didn’t know where he had come from before he fell to the ground. A waxwing eats a berry on an arrowwood tree. Therefore, we could not find his original flock. Last March a berry binge led to the deaths of about 50 cedar waxwings found along a road in Harris County, Texas. The woman who brought the waxwing in said he seemed “tame.” He just sat on her finger and wouldn’t move, and that’s what prompted her to call the clinic. It is a medium-sized, mostly brown, gray, and yellow bird named for its wax-like wing tips. Birds in Yukon are having some trouble flying straight these days. You might be surprised to learn that this is common. These symptoms are also connected with head trauma in wild birds, so that was also a possibility. Sometimes birds like this fly into windows, or get stepped on, so he could have really been injured. This phenomenon activates the fermentation process, turning the sugars within the fruits into carbon dioxide and alcohol. It is a native of North and Central America, breeding in open wooded areas in southern Canada and wintering in the southern half of the United States, Central America, and the far northwest of South … This was a healthy looking bird. According to e-bird, the most recent sighting of a large flock of waxwings in the Philadelphia area was the day before the release, in Houston Meadow, which also happens to have many plants and bushes with berries still on them. What can be done to protect the Cedar Waxwing from itself? Red-bellied Woodpeckers visit feeders for fruit. There have been numerous reports, ranging back to the 1800’s, of Cedar Waxwings tumbling to the ground from trees and from atop buildings, seriously injuring or killing the birds. He was much, much more ‘still’ … They ate too many over-ripe berries from a Brazilian pepper tree in Los Angeles and died, some from ruptured livers and others from flying under the influence, according to a 2012 report in the Journal of Ornithology. Such was the case with several Bohemian waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus) that flew into Whitehorse, Yukon, this fall, and ended up in "drunk tanks" after bingeing on … A cedar waxwing partaking of berries from a mountain ash tree in Alberta, Canada (Image: Mike Sturk/Rex Features) After overindulging in berries, flocks of cedar waxwings flew drunkenly to their doom. But given his behavior, we didn’t think that was the case. Don’t Freeze Up – Keep Nectar Liquid in a Frost, Put the Rake Away – Let Birds Enjoy Leaf Litter. Jokes aside, however, birds really can get intoxicated by eating fermented berries. You can get more from Mike (and Sweet-Seed) on twitter. With their diets being comprised of over 80% fruits and berries of nearly all shapes and sizes, it’s fair to say that Cedar Waxwings absolutely love their fruit. I’m glad the woman was concerned enough to bring him to us. Having read many times about this species’ proclivity for drunkenness, I looked up videos of drunk waxwings on youtube, and those depicted behaved just like this one – just being very still and being able to be handled easily. These symptoms are also connected with head trauma in wild birds, so that was also a possibility. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. A group of Cedar Waxwings weren’t so lucky. So we decided that was the waxwing’s best chance of finding food and flockmates. Additionally, he also was in absolutely PERFECT feather, and he was in great body condition – upon palpating his breast muscle I could feel that he was almost fat, suggesting he’s been having no trouble finding winter berries, and maybe even overindulged a bit. All prices are in USD Copyright © 2020 Sweet-Seed Micro Batch Bird Feed. National Wildlife Health Center tests showed that berries collected from a nearby Ilex shrub contained 800 ppm ethanol by wet weight: “enough to produce intoxication in these birds that could have resulted in compromised behavior and subsequent fatal trauma.”
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