Cropped, sharpened, composited images.

These are Cedar Waxwings. It has been a few years since I've seen any. They seem to show up, eat their fill and move on. I happened to be driving through an adjacent neighborhood when I spied a flock of birds in several trees. Among the easily recognizable species were Robins and Starlings. The species that caught my eye were crested. With the skies being quite overcast pending a huge snowstorm tomorrow it was difficult to make a positive ID until I drove south of them to get the the brightest part of the sky behind me.

As I slowly cruised past them I knew for sure they were Waxwings. Cedar or Bohemian? Not so sure. All About Birds provided the difference. Cedar Waxwings had yellow bellies and Bohemians have gray bellies. Plenty of yellow bellies on these birds. The fruit trees they gorged themselves upon were Bradford Pears, an ornamental popular with landscapers.

I tried for some crisp closeups but only had my wife's point and shoot camera with me today and it runs on a screen like a cell phone instead of a viewfinder. Didn't have reading glasses with me so...36 shots quickly turned into 9 keepers. lol! None of the photos revealed the red waxy wingtips for which they are named, but the yellow tipped tails were visible.

"Waxwings have red, waxy tips on some of their wing feathers and yellow tips on the tail. The color comes from carotenoid pigments found in the fruit waxwings eat. As the birds get older, the waxy tips get bigger." - All About Birds.