{"id":54320,"date":"2018-09-27T05:15:50","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T11:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=54320"},"modified":"2025-05-10T10:01:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T15:01:36","slug":"immature-cedar-waxwing-in-the-wasatch-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/09\/27\/immature-cedar-waxwing-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Immature Cedar Waxwing in the Wasatch Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been trying for over a month to get decent images of fledgling and juvenile Cedar Waxwings and hadn’t succeeded but yesterday I was able to take a photograph of an immature waxwing that I actually like.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Cedar Waxwing – Nikon D500, f4, 1\/800, ISO 1600, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Fledglings are birds that have just left their nests, juveniles are birds that still have juvenile plumage, so what makes this Cedar Waxwing an immature bird?<\/p>\n

To put it simply this young Cedar Waxwing<\/span><\/a> is molting out of its juvenile plumage. Just one or two weeks ago I could see defuse brown stripes on the pale chest and bellies of the juvenile Cedar Waxwings I was seeing.<\/p>\n

This bird totally lacks those stripes and I can see a little bit of the pale yellow belly feathers that adults have. In human “ages” I’d say this Cedar Waxwings is in its teen aged years, not quite an adult but not a juvenile either.<\/p>\n

It can’t be seen in this photo but this youngster does not have the waxy red secondary wing tips that adults have but it does have the distinct waxy, yellow tail tips that adults do although on this juvenile those wing tips aren’t nearly as long as they are on adults.<\/p>\n

In my area of Utah I can see, hear and photograph Cedar Waxwings year round. Maybe next year I will be able to take the photos of Cedar Waxwings in their juvenile plumage that I have been dreaming of.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Cedar Waxwing photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been trying for over a month to get decent images of fledgling and juvenile Cedar Waxwings and hadn’t succeeded but yesterday I was able to take a photograph of an immature waxwing that I actually like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,4597,4594,26,773],"tags":[970,4599,4897,4598,4620,4067,4071,2312,2313,4069,4104,6522,5916,4600,4193],"class_list":["post-54320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-cedar-waxwings","category-morgan-county","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-autumn","tag-bombycilla-cedrorum","tag-branch","tag-cedar-waxwing","tag-fall","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-molt","tag-molting","tag-mountains","tag-perched","tag-utah-serviceberry","tag-waxwing","tag-waxwings","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cedar-waxwing-immature-mia-mcpherson-8702.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-e88","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":104643,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/07\/31\/young-cedar-waxwing-photos-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":54320,"position":0},"title":"Young Cedar Waxwing Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 31, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I found this young Cedar Waxwing in the remnants of a small aspen forest two days ago while I watched for other birds to come in to feed on ripe serviceberries.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Cedar Waxwing giving me the eye, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/cedar-waxwing-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-9164.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/cedar-waxwing-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-9164.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/cedar-waxwing-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-9164.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/cedar-waxwing-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-9164.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":116882,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/10\/10\/molting-immature-cedar-waxwing-in-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":54320,"position":1},"title":"Molting Immature Cedar Waxwing In Fall","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I was tickled to photograph a molting immature Cedar Waxwing yesterday morning high in the Wasatch Mountains. The forest setting was quite messy.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Molting immature Cedar Waxwing, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/cedar-waxwing-immature-molting-mia-mcpherson-2809.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/cedar-waxwing-immature-molting-mia-mcpherson-2809.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/cedar-waxwing-immature-molting-mia-mcpherson-2809.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/cedar-waxwing-immature-molting-mia-mcpherson-2809.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"On August 10th I drove into the mountains for a quiet, relaxing morning and came away with quite a few bird photos I have yet to process.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Cedar Waxwing lifting off towards the sky, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cedar-waxwing-adult-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-9455.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cedar-waxwing-adult-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-9455.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning I stopped to take a series of Cedar Waxwing images as a small flock of waxwings perched in a serviceberry that has just finished blooming.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cedar Waxwing perched on a serviceberry branch, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cedar-waxwing-adult-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-7835.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cedar-waxwing-adult-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-7835.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/cedar-waxwing-adult-serviceberry-mia-mcpherson-7835.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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