Waxwings are sprightly berry-devouring winter visitors to Great Britain and Ireland. They arrive in October to the east coast, usually numbering only a hundred or so, and slowly move inland in search of food. But when poor weather, or a good breeding year, creates food shortages in their northern coniferous forest homelands they flock southwards in large numbers.

With a voracious appetite for berries they can soon strip a rowan, hawthorn or cotoneaster plant bare. Glimpsing the prominent crest, black eye mask and brightly coloured wings, with waxy-looking red tips on the flight feathers, brightens up any dull winter’s day; and if they arrive in numbers it’s not as hard as you may think! Look to orchards, gardens and anywhere with berry-laden plants.

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