Roadrunner

GREATER ROADRUNNER (Geococcyx californianus)

Fun Facts--Breeding: Male courts female with cooing and serves her dinner sans wine. He conducts a loud, boisterous mating dance with foot stomping, tail-wagging, and deep bowing. They mate upon completion of his “dervish.” They also mate for life; during their 4-5 year lifespan divorce is not an option. Perhaps instructive for human fidelity: food may be exchanged during copulation.

SCIENCE

Family: Cuculidae (also includes cuckoos and anis). Cuculids are characterized by: zygodactyl feet (“X” footprint, two forward toes, two backwards), slim body, tail one-half body length, and decurved (curved downward) beak.

Identification: 23” Distinctive running with aerodynamics improving at high speeds: head outstretched (flat), tail also flat (perpendicular) to the ground. It has streaked brown and white coloration with a dark, heavily spotted head; crest that rises and falls while walking; short wings; long, thick, decurved bill; pale belly; and long, strong legs. Sexes are alike. Basically, you can’t miss it.

Diet and Hunting: While roadrunners are omnivorous, they prefer to eat almost anything that moves. With 18 MPH running speeds, these fleet-of-foot land-sharks eat mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and even some birds. Menu items include: insects (including scorpions, grass hoppers, cicadas, beetles, spiders, and caterpillars), small rodents, reptiles (mostly snakes and lizards), amphibians (frogs) and small birds (humming birds which it knocks out of the air, and nestlings). Prey animals are held in its large bill and are tenderized by pounding on rocks. While solitary, two birds might work together to kill a large prey animal. It receives sufficient hydration from its food, free water is not necessary.

Range: Scrub desert and mesquite groves.

Desert Adaptations: Summer cooling accomplished via resting in the shade, panting, and “gular” fluttering (rapidly flapping throat membranes) for evaporative cooling. “Salt glands” in front of its eyes eliminate salt without running water through the kidneys. Ocean birds that drink seawater have a similar gland. Finally, and highest on the gross-out list, adults eat juveniles’ fecal sacks for a nice, moist snack. For winter energy conservation, roadrunners reduce body temperature up to 7 degrees, and for winter warming, they fluff up the rear feathers and sun bathe to warm a dark patch of skin on their backs.

Song: Dove-like cooing, descending in pitch.

Nesting: Both male and female build their loosely-fitted stick nests (usually in cactus or thorny bush), incubate the eggs (usually 2-6 which hatch in 20 days) and tend the young. During times of scarcity, mom and dad sometimes eat weak young chicks or feed them to their older siblings. Sounds like home.

Sources: Field Guide to Birds 5th Ed. (National Geographic); The Sibley Guide 2001 (The National Audubon Society); Cornell University website: (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Greater_Roadrunner_dtl.html)