Heroku: Up and Running

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Heroku: Up and Running is a Japanese Waxwing (Bombycilla japonica), a fairly small passerine bird of the waxwing family found in Russia and northeast Asia.

The Japanese Waxwing is about 18 cm in length and its plumage is mostly pinkish-brown. It has a pointed crest, a black throat, a black stripe through the eye, a pale yellow center to the belly, and a black tail with a red tip. Unlike the other species of waxwing, it lacks the row of waxy red feathertips on the wing, which gives the birds its name.

The Japanese Waxwing’s call is a high-pitched trill, and it feeds mainly on fruit and berries and also eats insects during the summer. There is little available information about breeding and nesting behavior—its courtship displays are probably similar to those of the other waxwings, performed with raised crest and fluffed gray rump feathers.

Changes in its habitat, use of pesticides, and other control measures from commercial fruit-growers have caused declines in population. This species is currently considered “near threatened” due to loss and degradation of its forest habitat.

The cover image is from Wood’s Natural History. The cover fonts are URW Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.