UPDATE: VINS Wildlife Services was able to release this waxwing on Sunday in a Hartland neighborhood home to at least one known flock of cedar waxwings. Thank you to those who offered suggestions of locations to release the bird. We do appreciate your help!
The VINS Wildlife Services department needs your help!
We have had a cedar waxwing in our care since March 21, and he is ready to be released back into the wild. However, waxwings are flock birds, and live communally with others of their kind. Therefore, we can’t release him out into the wild on his own — we need to find a flock of cedar waxwings.
This is where you come in!
If you have observed a flock of cedar waxwings frequenting your yard, neighborhood or any place you’ve seen them regularly, let us know by calling us at (802) 359-5001, ext. 212. We’d like to speak with you about coordinating a release of our bird with a flock. The photos posted here are of our waxings in our Songbird Exhibit. You can find more photos to ID cedar waxwings on
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s web site.
This particular waxwing in rehab came in after a Ludlow resident found him sitting beneath an apple tree, unable to fly. We suspect he flew into a window, suffering damage to his right wing. His care at VINS has allowed him a full recovery, and he’s good to go — we just need to find him some buddies.
Please keep your eyes and ears peeled for cedar waxwings. And thank you!
There’s usually flocks of them hanging about in the berry trees just down the road from you in Woodstock, VT.
Can you give a more specific location in Woodstock? Thanks!
Hey guys…Zac took a video of one sitting on an apple tree in the front terrace yesterday. Eating petals. so cute. Havent seen a ‘flock’ but were there is one, there may be many. I will keep my eyes open. see you in the am.
Sorry! I should have been more specific. As you are driving through the main street of Woodstock from the north, the neighborhood to the right (if you go over the covered bridge) is filled with trees that I normally see waxwings in.