The Greater Roadrunner - Geococcyx californianus -  is a long-legged bird in the  Cuculidae family. This roadrunner is also known as the chaparral cock, ground cuckoo, and snake killer. The name roadrunner comes from the bird's habit of racing down roads in front of moving vehicles and then darting to safety in the brush. It is found in arid shrubby country. Although capable of weak flight, it spends most of its time on the ground, and can run at speeds of up to 26 miles per hour. This bird is primarily a species of the southwestern United States, but their full range includes other areas as well. They occur in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Their range continues into southern Mexico,

Description

The adult has a bushy crest and long thick dark bill. It has a long dark tail, a dark head and back, and is blue on the front of the neck and on the belly. Roadrunners have four toes on each foot, with two facing forward, and two facing backward. They have long, wobbly legs and a slender, pointed bill. The upper body is mostly brown with black streaks and sometimes pink spots. The neck and upper breast are white or pale brown with dark brown streaks, and the belly is white. A crest of brown feathers sticks up on the head, and a bare patch of orange and blue skin lies behind each eye. The blue is replaced by white in adult males (except the blue adjacent to the eye), and the orange (to the rear) is often hidden by feathers. The sexes are similar in appearance. Immature greater roadrunners lack the colorful postocular streaks and are more bronze in color.

Call

Greater roadrunners have a wide range of vocalizations. Mournful dove-like "coo" notes, slow and descending in pitch; also a bill-rattle. The song is a series of six slow, low coos in descending pitch. During the mating season males will also attract females with a whirring call. The alarm call is a clackety noise produced by clicking the mandibles together in a sharp and rapid manner. The chicks give a buzzing begging call

Food

This birde runs down its prey. It mainly feeds on insects, fruit and seeds with the addition of small snakes and other reptiles. It also eats small mammals, Spiders, Scorpions, birds and carrion., It kills larger prey with a blow from the beak—hitting the base of the neck of small mammals—or by holding it in the beak and beating it against a rock. Two roadrunners sometimes attack a relatively big snake cooperatively.

Breeding

The Greater Roadrunner nests on a platform of sticks low in a cactus or a bush and lays 3–6 eggs, which hatch in 20 days. Eggs incubated by both sexes. The chicks fledge in another 18 days. Both parents care for young. Pairs may occasionally rear a second brood.

Conservation Status – Least Concern

Not globally threatened. Common to fairly common; population numbers over most of range have shown no significant change in period 1966-1993. Habitat loss and urban sprawl are the major threats to greater roadrunners. The construction of roads causes fragmentation of habitat as well as mortality from cars. Greater roadrunners are also illegally shot in response to predation on quail. Further, agricultural pesticides can adversely affected the species.

Bird watching

Can be seen in arid scrub, lowland or montane; widely dispersed in dry open country with scattered brush, mesquite, palo verde, creosote, cholla cactus, prickly-pear cactus, upper oak and pi¤on pine scrub, in yucca and shortgrass plains of N Texas panhandle; also in tall pines and magnolias in E Texas; clearings in farms and dry scrubby woods. Roosts and feeds in shelter of trees and rocks.

New Mexico Hotspots

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

Aztec Ruins National Monument

Bandelier National Monument

Capulin Volcano National Monument

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Chaco Culture National Historic Park

El Malpais National Monument

El Morro National Monument

Fort Union National Monument

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

Pecos National Historical Park

Petroglyph National Monument

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

White Sands National Monument

Guadalupe Canyon

Bitter Lake NWR

Bosque del Apache NWR

Las Vegas NWR

Maxwell NWR

San Andres NWR

Sevilleta NWR

Gray Ranch

Sevilleta

Rio Nutria

Rattlesnake Springs

Mimbres River

Gila Riparian Preserve