Creeksong

what kind of bird is this?

That was a Cedar Waxwing.... I saved one once from an ice storm disaster area in Northern NY -- scooped him up more than half dead off the ice. It exhibited the same type of intelligence once it warmed back up.... Actually let it out of the box to hang out in my college dorm room and it didn't fly around all frantic and trying to get out the window. It knew I was saving its life.... And boy did it luv its fruit --- cherries and blueberries, primarily -- and would fly over to the desk as soon as I started cutting it up for his feedings. I had it as a roommate for about a week until one day I saw a flock of them outside my window feeding on the thawed fruits on the crabapple trees in the "quad".... Even then, he just sat quietly staring at them through the window, but showed more interest in them than any other birds that had been around in the "quad" before them.... So I figured there was now food available and that he likely belonged to that flock so I opened the window and let him go then chopped up the remaining fruit that would have been his feed and set it all out on the window sill.... He came back and called the flock to him to feast. A lot of the local wildlife perished in that natural disaster, but I was so glad to have come across that one little life that could be saved with something as simple as warmth and fruit =)