New Bird! Cedar Waxwing?
New bird?
We've lived here for eight years and rarely see a species we haven't seen before. But yesterday, in the slide from daylight to dusk, we had two small visitors at our ground-level bird bath, moving far too fast for a photo. They looked like a pair of too-small female cardinals.
I dug through the internet and our bird books, and I think Cedar Waxwing is the answer. This photo shows the fancy red trim on the wings, but many photos do not and I didn't notice it on our pair. I also didn't pick up on the yellow trim on the tail, but the light wasn't that good. The yellowish lower belly was plainly visible.
I thought only one of them had the black eyestripe, but there are no gender differences in adults, and it seems a bit early for this to have been an adult/juvenile sighting; but it all happened so fast.
Edit: We know they aren't titmice; these are smaller, and the paintjob is all wrong, shades of ochre and khaki and yellow.
So, fellow Beltway exurbians of NoVa and Maryland: have you seen these here? Or have I made a misidentification?
And fellow bird aficionados: if it wasn't a Cedar Waxwing, what is it?
We've lived here for eight years and rarely see a species we haven't seen before. But yesterday, in the slide from daylight to dusk, we had two small visitors at our ground-level bird bath, moving far too fast for a photo. They looked like a pair of too-small female cardinals.
I dug through the internet and our bird books, and I think Cedar Waxwing is the answer. This photo shows the fancy red trim on the wings, but many photos do not and I didn't notice it on our pair. I also didn't pick up on the yellow trim on the tail, but the light wasn't that good. The yellowish lower belly was plainly visible.
I thought only one of them had the black eyestripe, but there are no gender differences in adults, and it seems a bit early for this to have been an adult/juvenile sighting; but it all happened so fast.
Edit: We know they aren't titmice; these are smaller, and the paintjob is all wrong, shades of ochre and khaki and yellow.
So, fellow Beltway exurbians of NoVa and Maryland: have you seen these here? Or have I made a misidentification?
And fellow bird aficionados: if it wasn't a Cedar Waxwing, what is it?