I photographed this Bohemian Waxwing a few days before my encounter with the big flock. On this day the big flock was around, but it had taken off only a couple of minutes before I arrived. Darn! The big flock never returned, but later on this one lone bird showed up. Bohemian Waxwings usually occur in groups, so seeing this singleton struck me as odd. Then I noticed that this bird had no red or yellow markings on its wings. Since the pigments that are responsible for these colors come entirely from a bird’s diet I thought that maybe this bird was not doing too well. But after rifling through some of my bird books I discovered that Bohemian Waxwings develop these red and yellow markings with age and that juveniles lack them. I didn’t know that! So this bird was probably a first year bird that may not have known to keep up with the flock.