Backyard Chat - Ask The Experts

Herb-growing tips, how to attract waxwings and more from our pros.

Q Cedar waxwings are common in my area, and I have trees they like, but they don’t visit my backyard. Why?

Heather Dawson CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND, VIRGINIA

Kenn and Kimberly: Cedar waxwings can be tantalizing. For most of the year they wander in flocks, seeking trees with good crops of small fruits or berries. During fall, winter and spring, a flock may suddenly arrive in a rush, chowing down on fruits for a short while, and then leave just as abruptly. In the summer nesting season, single waxwings or pairs are quiet and easy to overlook. The best thing to do is to plant more trees and shrubs that bear fruits at different seasons—native crabapples, dogwoods, mountain ash, eastern red cedars and others—and have faith that waxwings will show up eventually.

Q This bird hung out with a house finch at my sunflower seed feeder. It looks like a house finch, but the coloring is not typical. What kind of bird is this?

Jean Bullock DU QUOIN, ILLINOIS

Kenn and Kimberly: What you have there is a house finch with a fascinating color variation. Male house finches are usually marked with red, but sometimes those red areas are replaced with orange or yellow or some of both. The red pigment in the feathers is affected by what the finch eats, so there might have been deficiencies in the bird’s diet back when this set of feathers was growing in. If this individual continues to visit your yard, you may see it develop the normal red coloring the next time it molts new feathers.

Q I keep my amaryllis plants outdoors in the spring and summer, and one year they bloomed! Is that normal, and should I expect that in the future?

Peggy Haskin RACINE, WISCONSIN