The Japanese waxwing (Bombycilla japonica) is a fairly small passerine bird of the waxwing family found in the East Palaearctic. 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. Some of the wing feathers have red tips, the resemblance of which to sealing wax gives these birds their common name.
The Japanese waxwing is about 18 cm in length and its plumage is mostly pinkish-brown. The Japanese waxwing has a pointed crest, a black throat, a black stripe through the eye, a pale yellow centre to the belly and a black tail with a red tip. The wings have a pattern of black, grey and white with a reddish-brown stripe running across them. Its call is a high-pitched trill but there is no true song.
Unlike the other species of waxwing, it lacks the row of waxy red feather-tips on the wing which gives the birds their name. Japanese waxwings often occur in mixed flocks with Bohemian waxwings which, as well as having the row of waxy tips, are slightly larger with a yellow tail-tip, greyish centre to the belly and no reddish-brown stripe across the wing.
The Japanese waxwing breeds in the dense coniferous pine forest of the Russian Far East (Amur, Manchuria, Kamchatka, etc.) and in Heilongjiang province, north-east China. It is experiencing some threats with extinction, due to loss and degradation of its preferred, forest habitat.
Outside of the breeding season, this waxwing winters on Japan, the Korean Peninsula and Eastern China; the exact distribution is irregular, as birds will travel and move in search of food, mainly seasonal berries, and birds may be common in a certain area during one year but move away the next. In Japan, it is generally present from November through April; few birds winter on Hokkaidō, but in south-western Japan (parts of Kyūshū, Shikoku, Honshu), it outnumbers the Bohemian waxwing. The winter habitat is open woodland, low-lying farmland, or low mountains, with birds frequently visiting the berry-laden trees of parks and private gardens.
Vagrant birds have been known to appear in Hong Kong, Central China and Taiwan; records from further afield, such as in Europe, South Asia or the Middle East, are more than likely to be escapees from captivity (or aviculture) than genuinely wild birds.