Last week, Bohemian waxwings arrived in Auburn, Portland and the town of Old Orchard Beach. They should arrive any minute in the Bangor area. They are beauties, looking much like cedar waxwings – silky brown, with a long dapper crest, a yellow band across the end of the tail and shiny red spots on wing feathers.

Seeing this regal bird is one of the highlights of a Maine winter. Watch for them in crabapple trees, feeding on fruit and trilling to each other. They are larger than cedar waxwings, and have a rusty red patch under the tail.

Birders come to Orono from Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and other points south just to see these birds in winter. When the word goes around on the Internet that the Bohemian waxwings have arrived in Bangor and on the University of Maine campus, out-of-state birders head here.

Bohemian waxwings have an interesting migration pattern. In summer, they nest from Alaska to Hudson Bay, then migrate to Maine, New Brunswick and Newfoundland for the winter. I have never understood why they migrate as they do.

Bohemian waxwings eat frozen berries all winter. I don’t know how they do it. I know what it’s like to eat ice cream in winter. Brrrr.

When you see these birds feeding in a tree, they are quite tame. You can get quite close and admire them as they pluck the frozen crabapples. When they have enough, the whole flock takes off and flies away.

Another winter bird is arriving, too. It’s a bird that gives new bird watchers a challenge to identify – the pine siskin. It’s a tiny bird, streaked with dark brown all over.

When they arrive, we get many calls at the Fields Pond Audubon Center: “What is this little drab sparrow on my feeder? It’s not in the bird book.”

The problem is, the bird is not on the sparrow pages. It’s next to the goldfinch page. That is because the pine siskin and goldfinch are closely related. The pine siskin has some yellow on its wings, sometimes visible as it flies.

At the feeder, the pine siskin likes thistle seed or black oil sunflower seed. A few of them nest in Maine, but sometimes thousands come to our part of Maine when a good crop of birch tree seeds, alder seeds and-or hemlock, larch or spruce cones ripen in our area. It seems that phenomenon may be happening. If so, it will be a good winter to see many pine siskins.

For information on Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.