Roadrunner

The greater roadrunner is a long-legged member of the cuckoo family, found in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is the largest cuckoo of the Americas, about 52 to 62 cm long, with a brown, black-streaked body, a crest of brown feathers and a patch of bare orange and blue skin behind each eye. Mostly terrestrial, it is capable of only limited flight but runs at up to 20 mph. An omnivore that uses speed to catch prey, it eats insects, spiders, scorpions, mice, small birds, lizards and young rattlesnakes, along with some plants. It does not migrate.

About the roadrunner

The roadrunner, or greater roadrunner, is a long-legged, fast-running bird of the cuckoo family that lives in the deserts and dry scrublands of the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is the largest cuckoo in the Americas and spends most of its life on the ground, chasing down insects, lizards and snakes rather than flying.

Its scientific name, Geococcyx californianus, means "Californian earth-cuckoo." It is one of only two species in its genus; the other is the lesser roadrunner, which lives farther south in Mexico. Over the years it has also been called the chaparral cock, the ground cuckoo and the snake killer. Fossils show roadrunners have lived in the Southwest for tens of thousands of years, with the oldest, from a New Mexico cave, dated to about 33,500 years ago. Until about 8,000 years ago they lived in open woodland, and only later adapted to desert scrub.

An adult measures 52–62 cm (20–24 in) from bill to tail, stands 25–30 cm (10–12 in) tall, and weighs 221–538 g (7.8–19 oz). Much of that length is a long tail, often carried cocked upward, which the bird uses as a rudder and brake. Females are slightly smaller, on average about 2 cm (0.8 in) shorter and 30 g (1.1 oz) lighter than males, but the plumage of the sexes is the same.

The upper body is brown, streaked with black and white, and the neck and breast are pale with dark streaks over a white belly. A crest on the head can be raised or lowered at will. Behind each eye is a patch of bare skin, blue near the eye and orange or red toward the back. The long, stout bill has a hooked tip. The roadrunner has zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward and two pointing back.

Behavior and diet

The roadrunner is built for running. It can keep up 29–32 km/h (18–20 mph) over long distances, and some birds have been reported at 42 km/h (26 mph), the fastest running speed recorded for a bird that can fly. While running it holds its head and tail level with the ground and swings the tail to change direction. It prefers open ground such as roads, packed trails and dry riverbeds. Flight is limited: it may fly down from a perch such as a tree, or more rarely make short flights of 4–5 m (13–16 ft) between roosts, and it can stay airborne for only a few seconds.

It eats almost anything it can catch. Prey includes insects, spiders such as black widows and tarantulas, centipedes, scorpions, mice, lizards, small birds including hummingbirds, and young rattlesnakes. It also takes eggs and nestlings of other birds, eats carrion, and feeds on prickly pear cactus fruit where available. When hunting, it walks quickly while scanning, then dashes forward to grab prey, and it may leap to snatch insects from the air. Small animals such as rodents are smashed against a rock and then swallowed whole.

The roadrunner is diurnal and has several ways of coping with desert heat and cold. In hot weather it is active from sunrise to mid-morning and from late afternoon into evening, resting in shade at midday. It saves water by reabsorbing moisture in its gut, and nasal glands get rid of excess salt. It cools itself by panting. At night it lowers its body temperature from about 40 °C (104 °F) to 34 °C (93 °F), cutting energy use by more than 30%.

In the morning it warms up by sunbathing. It turns its back to the sun, spreads its wings and fluffs the feathers of its back and head to expose patches of black skin, which soak up heat. On cool mornings it can hold this pose for two or three hours.

Roadrunners have seven distinct calls. The best known is the male's slow series of about six low, descending coos, given from a fence post, dead tree or cactus and audible up to 250 m (820 ft) away. Females give short, low shrills that sound like a coyote's squeal, and the alarm call is a rapid clatter made by clicking the bill.

They live alone until they pair, then form long-term, monogamous bonds, and pairs may mate for life. Courtship includes chasing, tail-wagging, play-fighting and calls, and the male often offers the female food such as a lizard or snake dangling from his bill. Pairs defend a territory of about 700–800 square meters (7,500–8,600 sq ft), some all year round. The male gathers sticks and the female builds a compact nest of thorny twigs lined with grass, feathers, roots and even snakeskin, about 1–3 m (3–10 ft) up in a cactus, bush or man-made structure. She lays three to six eggs, which hatch in about 20 days. Chicks leave the nest about 18 days later, can run and catch their own prey at about three weeks, and stay with their parents until at least 50 days old. Pairs may raise a second brood in years with good summer rains. Like some other cuckoos, roadrunners occasionally lay eggs in other birds' nests, such as those of common ravens and northern mockingbirds.

Roadrunners rely on speed and brush cover to escape predators. On the ground these include coyotes, bobcats, lynxes and cougars, and from the air, Cooper's hawks and red-tailed hawks. Coyotes also eat their eggs.

Range and habitat

The greater roadrunner lives in the Aridoamerica region of the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is seen regularly in California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah and part of Colorado, and less often in Kansas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri. In Mexico it ranges from Baja California and Sonora across much of the north and center of the country. It does not migrate.

It lives from 61 m (200 ft) below sea level up to about 2,300 m (7,500 ft), rarely higher than 3,000 m (9,800 ft). The preferred habitat is arid and semi-arid scrub with scattered, low plant cover, typically under half the ground covered and under 3 m (10 ft) tall. It needs a mix of brush for cover and open patches for hunting, and chaparral or coastal sage scrub for breeding. Partly because of how people have changed the landscape, the species has recently been spreading northeast of its traditional range.

Conservation status

The greater roadrunner is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, based on a 2016 assessment by BirdLife International.

Local threats still exist. Habitat loss and urban sprawl are the main pressures, and new roads break up habitat and kill birds in traffic. Some roadrunners are shot illegally because they eat quail, and farm pesticides can build up in the birds through their prey. In coastal southern California, development has broken sage scrub into patches too small for a roadrunner's large territory, giving the species little chance of persisting there.