Bohemian Waxwing

The Bohemian Waxwing has a size, shape and flight similar to the European Starling, with which it can easily be confused from a distance, especially as it is gregarious like it, but close observation will soon separate them. The plumage is light and the beak is short. The most obvious thing is the long erect crest, often raised on the head. The face is heavily contrasted. A black band from the forehead engulfs the dark eye and continues to the nape. The throat is also black. The front of the cap and cheeks is reddish. A white patch can be seen at the corner of the bill and a white stripe outlines the eye. The bi-coloured beak is rather short and thick. The mantle and wing coverts are brownish-beige, turning to light grey on the back, rump and upper tail coverts. The underside is beige, slightly tinged with salmon at the neck and chest. The underbelly is white, strongly contrasting with the chestnut undertail coverts.
The wings and tail are striking. Black primary feathers end in white and yellow, grey secondaries in white and bright red. A white band crosses the wing at the level of the big coverts. The short tail, grey at the base and then black, is ended in yellow, as if the bird had dipped its rectrices in a paint pot.
Sexual dimorphism is subtle. The female has less yellow at the end of the tail, less white on the primary feathers, less red on the secondaries; the throat black is less well-defined, etc.
The juvenile has a duller, more grey plumage, without the subtle pink or red shades which characterise the adult's. It is also less uniform, striped in brown on the lower parts. The throat is white. The facial mask is narrower, the crest shorter, the yellow of the wing paler and the tail less wide than the adult's.Only when they reproduce does this become visible, before post-juvenile molt. After the first molt, the young bird looks quite similar to an adult but its plumage lacks luster. It can berecognized mainly by its primary wing feathers where the outer yellow vane is less developed and paler, and there is no white inner vane. It's quite subtle.