Roadrunner

Greater Roadrunners, Geococcyx californianus, in The Living Desert

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• published: 21 Dec 2012
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The roadrunner genus Geococcyx has two species: the greater roadrunner (californianus) and the lesser roadrunner (velox). This is a video about two greater roadrunners. Greater roadrunners are popular birds due to their depiction as a cartoon character in The Looney Tunes show since 1949. The roadrunner character is also the mascot of Time Warner Cable's cable service. Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese created this popular character, and it has been ingrained in American minds for several generations. Of course, the real bird bears only superficial resemblance to the cartoon character, makes no noise, and is much smaller. The greater roadrunner is not only located in California, as its Latin scientific name suggests, but throughout most of the American Southwest and Mexico. It doesn't live in most of Northern California, but the bird is an occasional sight in Southern California. I once saw a roadrunner in Riverside, California that, after seizing a sparrow in its beak, jumped on top of a wall to peck it apart and eat it. Most of the time I just see them hopping away and fleeing as humans or cars approach. The greater roadrunner is also known as the Californian Earth-cuckoo, chaparral cock, snake killer, and ground cuckoo. It is the largest species of cuckoo (family Cuculidae). The greater roadrunner usually runs around a top speed of 32 kilometers per hour, but has been clocked at 42 before. It is the fastest-running bird with flight, but much slower than the ostrich, which is flightless due to its ponderous weight. Greater roadrunners can fly only a little bit, and stay close to the ground almost all the time. Their name comes from their habit of running down roads from cars and darting under bushes to safety. Roadrunners breed in desert, chaparral, and scrublands. They build low-lying stick nests on cacti and bushes and lay 3-6 eggs that hatch around 20 days. Sometimes pairs can give birth to a second brood later. Greater roadrunners use their fast running speed to chase down prey. They mainly feed on insects, fruit, and seeds with the addition of small reptiles, including snakes, small mammals, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, small birds, their eggs, and carrion. It kills larger prey with violent beak blows, hitting the base of the neck of small mammals, or by holding prey in their beaks and beating it against rocks. Two roadrunners sometimes attack big snakes together. That would make quite the video! I find roadrunners curious and entertaining to watch. They seem to constantly be fanning their head and tail feathers up and down like levers or see-saws. Their eyes give off a sense of acute awareness and reflexes. Greater roadrunners have 4 toes: 2 pointing forward, and 2 pointing backwards. They hop, sort of like avian rabbits. The blue-crested one in this video was jumping up at the fence in an attempt to escape the enclosure.