Bombycilla japonica
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The Japanese waxwing (Bombycilla japonica) is a fairly small passerine bird in the waxwing family found in the eastern Palaearctic, where it breeds south of the breeding range of the related Bohemian waxwing, but overlaps extensively with it in winter. It feeds mainly on fruit and berries but also eats insects during the summer. The nest is a cup of twigs lined with grass and moss which is built in a tree. In males, the secondary wing feathers have red tips, the resemblance of which to sealing wax gives these birds their common name. It is listed by IUCN as Near Threatened, due to loss and degradation of its preferred forest habitat.
The Japanese waxwing is one of three species placed in the genus Bombycilla by Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1808. Bombycilla is Vieillot's attempt at Latin for "silktail", translating the German name Seidenschwänze. Vieillot thought that motacilla, Latin for wagtails, was derived from mota for "move" and cilla, which he thought meant "tail"; however, Motacilla actually combines motacis, a mover, with the diminutive suffix -illa. He then combined this "cilla" with the Latin bombyx, meaning silk. The specific epithet japonica is Latin for "of Japan... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Japanese Waxwing sighting in Suzhou on a given day, based on 18 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 146th most-seen of the 171 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Japanese Waxwing in Suzhou on a given day, against under 5% in March to January, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Japanese Waxwing sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 17
Of the 17 cities where we can rate Japanese Waxwing sightings, Suzhou ranks 13th at under 5%. The best odds are in Fukuoka (Japan, about 10%), Chengdu (China, about 10%) and Tianjin (China, under 5%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Japanese Waxwing that you can see in Suzhou (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Chinese Blackbird (about 90%), Light-vented Bulbul (about 90%) and Oriental Magpie (about 90%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Japanese Waxwing is recorded against all the birds logged in Suzhou (18 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
