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