Waxwings are primarily fruit eaters, but also consume insects during the breeding season.
Mosquitoes and midges are the most common prey, but many other insects and some spiders are eaten.
They are caught mainly by flycatching from an open perch, but some may be picked off vegetation.
Fruit is normally picked from trees, sometimes from the ground, and is usually swallowed whole.
In the summer, Vaccinium and Rubus species and Canada buffaloberry are important items of their diet, while cotoneaster, juniper, haws, rose hips and apples predominate outside the breeding season.
Rowan berries are a favourite food, and are eaten whenever available.

Waxwings can eat huge numbers of berries, each bird sometimes consuming several hundred a day, more than double its own weight.
One individual was recorded as eating between 600 and 1,000 cotoneaster berries in six hours, and defecating every four minutes.
Waxwings travel significant distances when feeding and help to disperse the fruit seeds.
Waxwings forage in large flocks, sometimes of several hundred birds, which enables them to overwhelm birds such as mistle thrushes attempting to defend their fruit trees.

Fruit is rich in sugar but deficient in other nutrients, so it must be eaten in large quantities.
Bohemian waxwings have a large liver which helps to convert sugar to energy.
They can metabolise ethanol produced from the fermentation of those sugary fruits more efficiently than humans, but may still become intoxicated, sometimes fatally.
Waxwings often drink water or eat snow in winter, since the sugar in their fruit diet tends to dehydrate the birds through an osmotic effect.
In the summer, the fruits are juicier and water is less of a problem.

In the past, the arrival of waxwings sometimes coincided with epidemics of cholera or plague, and led to the old Dutch and Flemish name Pestvogel, "plague bird".
The juniper berries on which they fed were thought to offer protection, and people consumed the fruit and burned branches to fumigate their houses.
Waxwings are primarily fruit eaters, but also consume insects during the breeding season. Mosquitoes and midges are the most common prey, but many other insects and some spiders are eaten. They are caught mainly by flycatching from an open perch, but some may be picked off vegetation. Fruit is normally picked from trees, sometimes from the ground, and is usually swallowed whole. In the summer, Vaccinium and Rubus species and Canada buffaloberry are important items of their diet, while cotoneaster, juniper, haws, rose hips and apples predominate outside the breeding season. Rowan berries are a favourite food, and are eaten whenever available.
Waxwings can eat huge numbers of berries, each bird sometimes consuming several hundred a day, more than double its own weight. One individual was recorded as eating between 600 and 1,000 cotoneaster berries in six hours, and defecating every four minutes. Waxwings travel significant distances when feeding and help to disperse the fruit seeds. Waxwings forage in large flocks, sometimes of several hundred birds, which enables them to overwhelm birds such as mistle thrushes attempting to defend their fruit trees.
Fruit is rich in sugar but deficient in other nutrients, so it must be eaten in large quantities. Bohemian waxwings have a large liver which helps to convert sugar to energy. They can metabolise ethanol produced from the fermentation of those sugary fruits more efficiently than humans, but may still become intoxicated, sometimes fatally. Waxwings often drink water or eat snow in winter, since the sugar in their fruit diet tends to dehydrate the birds through an osmotic effect. In the summer, the fruits are juicier and water is less of a problem.
In the past, the arrival of waxwings sometimes coincided with epidemics of cholera or plague, and led to the old Dutch and Flemish name Pestvogel, "plague bird". The juniper berries on which they fed were thought to offer protection, and people consumed the fruit and burned branches to fumigate their houses.
Bohemian waxwing