This is a cedar waxwing.  I took this picture through a window, so not bad, eh?

My friend Lisa is a fantabulous, super talented outdoor/landscape/wildlife photographer. She lives in the mountains of Pennsylvania and has hot shot professional cameras and just got a honking big lens to she can photograph the birds in her ‘yard’ (where she has set up lots and lots of feeders.)

She just posted about 50 photos of cedar waxwings that have descended on her ‘yard’ – and they are, of course, fabulous photos, just smashing but personally I hate these little buggers.

There is a 6-story tall holly tree outside my by bedroom windows and since we moved here back in 2012 that tree has been home to so many birds, I used to take dozens of photos of the birds that called that tree home. Not so much anymore because of these damn cedar waxwings.

Back in April of 2018 a flock of these damn birds descended on that holly tree and chased all the other birds away. They then ate every single berry off that tree – every single one! When there were no more berries to be had they flew off never to be seen again.

AND…

The birds (and squirrels) who used to live in that tree never really came back, at least not in the numbers and diversity that had been there before the cedar waxwings moved in.

Pretty as these birds might be to me they are just greedy little bullies.

Sure, sure – I see some robins, hear the mourning doves, or did, they seemed to have moved on. There is an occasional cardinal, not in my tree but on my neighbors balcony, and just this morning, a bluejay was flitting around BUT there used to be masses of birds; tons of birds; lots and lots of birds, until those cedar waxwings blew into town. That was 3 years ago, they never came back and neither did the birds they chased away – bastids!