FAMILY: Bombycilla cedrorum, waxwing family

COLORS: Rich mauve brown, yellow belly, yellow-tipped tail, red waxy-like wingtips and black-masked eyes.

VOICE: tseee.

HABITAT: Orchards, parks, residential areas during non-nesting time; for breeding, land near farm ponds and open woodlands.

RANGE: Moves in flocks from British Columbia to Georgia and California.

Prefers areas with lots of fleshy fruits on trees and shrubs.

NESTS: 4-6 blue-gray eggs spotted with brown and black in bulky cup of twigs and grass in a tree; also uses materials put out by humans. Tip: fill a open-wired suet feeder with string, wool, human hair and even dryer lint for all types of birds to use for nests.

Breeds late summer when fruits are plentiful for feeding young. Adults store fruits for the young in their crop, a pouch in their throat; they can regurgitate as many as 30 choke berries, one at a time, into hungry mouths.

FOOD: Fruits and insects. Amusing, sociable birds may sit in a row on a branch and can be seen passing a berry down the line until a hungry one consumes it.

HELPFUL PLANTS: Serviceberry, red chokeberry, barberry, hackberry, cotoneaster, flowering dogwood, holly, eastern red cedar, Japanese honeysuckle, Oregon grape, leatherleaf mahonia, pokeberry, cherry laurel, pyracantha, Indian hawthorn, grape and blueberry.