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The roadrunners genus Geococcyx also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks are two species of fast running ground

Roadrunner

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The roadrunners (genus Geococcyx), also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests. They are found in the southwestern and south-central United States, Mexico and Central America, usually in the desert. Although capable of flight, roadrunners generally run away from predators. On the ground, some have been measured at 32 km/h (20 mph).

Roadrunner
image
Greater roadrunner
Scientific classification image
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cuculiformes
Family: Cuculidae
Subfamily: Neomorphinae
Genus: Geococcyx
Wagler, 1831
Type species
Geococcyx variegata
Wagler, 1831
Species

G. californianus
G. velox

Species

The subfamily Neomorphinae, the New World ground cuckoos, includes 11 species of birds, while the genus Geococcyx has just two:

Genus Geococcyx – Wagler, 1831 – two species
Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population
Greater roadrunner

image

Geococcyx californianus
(Lesson, 1829) 		Mexico and the southwestern and south-central United States
image 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Lesser roadrunner

image

Geococcyx velox
(Wagner, 1836) 		Mexico and Central America
image 		Size:

Habitat:

Diet: 		 LC 


Morphology

image
Three views of the same specimen

The roadrunner generally ranges in size from 56 to 61 cm (22 to 24 in) from tail to beak. The average weight is about 230–430 g (8–15 oz). The roadrunner is a slender, black-brown and white-streaked ground bird with a distinctive head crest. It has long legs, strong feet, and an oversized dark bill. The tail is broad with white tips on the three outer tail feathers. The bird has a bare patch of skin behind each eye; this patch is shaded blue anterior to red posterior. The lesser roadrunner is slightly smaller, not as streaky, and has a smaller bill. Both the lesser roadrunner and the greater roadrunner leave behind very distinct "X" track marks appearing as if they are travelling in both directions.

Roadrunners and other members of the cuckoo family have zygodactyl feet. The roadrunner can run at speeds of up to 32 km/h (20 mph) and generally prefer sprinting to flying, though it will fly to escape predators. During flight, the short, rounded wings reveal a white crescent in the primary feathers.

Vocalization

Roadrunner beak clatter

The roadrunner has a slow and descending dove-like "coo". It also makes a rapid, vocalized clattering sound with its beak.

Geographic range

Roadrunners inhabit the Southwestern United States, to parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, as well as Mexico and Central America. They live in arid lowland or mountainous shrubland or woodland. They are non-migratory, staying in their breeding area year-round. The greater roadrunner is not currently considered threatened in the US, but is habitat-limited.

Food and foraging habits

image
Greater roadrunner with a lizard

The roadrunner is an opportunistic omnivore. Its diet normally consists of insects (such as grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and beetles), small reptiles (such as lizards and snakes, including rattlesnakes),rodents and other small mammals, spiders (including tarantulas), scorpions, centipedes, snails, small birds (and nestlings), eggs, and fruits and seeds like those from prickly pear cactuses and sumacs. The lesser roadrunner eats mainly insects. The roadrunner forages on the ground and, when hunting, usually runs after prey from under cover. It may leap to catch insects, and commonly batters certain prey against the ground. The roadrunner is one of the few animals that preys upon rattlesnakes; it is also the only real predator of tarantula hawk wasps.

Behavior and breeding

image
Greater roadrunners often become habituated to the presence of people.

The roadrunner usually lives alone or in pairs. Breeding pairs are monogamous and mate for life, and pairs may hold a territory all year. During the courtship display, the male bows, alternately lifting and dropping his wings and spreading his tail. He parades in front of the female with his head high and his tail and wings drooped, and may bring an offering of food. The reproductive season is spring to mid-summer (depending on geographic location and species).

The roadrunner's nest is often composed of sticks, and may sometimes contain leaves, feathers, snakeskins, or dung. It is commonly placed 1 to 3 meters (3 to 10 feet) above ground level in a low tree, bush, or cactus. Roadrunner eggs are generally white. The greater roadrunner generally lays 2–6 eggs per clutch, but the lesser roadrunner's clutches are typically smaller. Hatching is asynchronous. Both sexes incubate the nest (with males incubating the nest at night) and feed the hatchlings. For the first one to two weeks after the young hatch, one parent remains at the nest. The young leave the nest at two to three weeks old, foraging with parents for a few days after.

Thermoregulation

Greater roadrunner warming itself in the sun, exposing the dark skin and feathers on its back

During the cold desert night, the roadrunner lowers its body temperature slightly, going into a slight torpor to conserve energy. To warm itself during the day, the roadrunner exposes dark patches of skin on its back to the sun.

Indigenous lore

The Hopi and other Pueblo tribes believed roadrunners were medicine birds, capable of warding off evil spirits. The X-shaped footprints of roadrunners were seen as sacred symbols, believed to confuse evil spirits by concealing the bird's direction of travel. Stylized roadrunner tracks have been found in the rock art of ancestral Southwestern tribes like the Mogollon cultures. Roadrunner feathers were used to decorate Pueblo cradleboards for spiritual protection. Among Mexican Indian and American Indian tribes, such as the Pima, seeing a roadrunner is considered good luck. While some Mexican tribes revered the roadrunner and never killed it, most used its meat as a folk remedy for illness or to boost stamina and strength.

Central American Indigenous peoples have various beliefs about the roadrunner. The Ch’orti’, known to call it t’unk’u’x or mu’, have taboos against harming the bird. The Ch'ol Maya believe roadrunners possess special powers, calling it ajkumtz’u’ due to its call, which is believed to induce tiredness in listeners.

The word for roadrunner in the O'odham language is taḏai, which is the name of a transit center in Tucson, Arizona. In the O'odham tradition, the roadrunner is also credited with bringing fire to the people.

In media

The roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico. The roadrunner was made popular by the Warner Bros. cartoon characters Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, created in 1949, and the subject of a long-running series of theatrical cartoon shorts. In each episode, the cunning, insidious, and constantly hungry Wile E. Coyote repeatedly attempts to catch and subsequently eat the Road Runner, but is never successful. The cartoons led to a misconception that the call of the roadrunner is "meep, meep" because the roadrunner in this cartoon series made that sound instead of the aforementioned sound of a real roadrunner. In some shorts, the Road Runner makes a noise while sticking his tongue out at Wile E. Coyote, which resembles its actual call. The cartoons rely on a misconception that a roadrunner is much faster than a coyote. In fact, a coyote's fastest sprinting speed is 64 km/h (40 mph), which is twice that of a roadrunner's at 32 km/h (20 mph).

Citations

  1. "Cuculidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  2. "roadrunner". The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  3. "roadrunner". Merriam Webster. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  4. Myers, P. R.; Parr, C. S.; Jones, T.; Hammond, G. S.; Dewey, T. A. "Neomorphinae (New World ground cuckoos)". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  5. Avian Web. "Roadrunners". Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  6. "Greater Roadrunners". Avian Web. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  7. "Lesser Roadrunners". Avian Web. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  8. "Roadrunner". Desert Animals. The Animal Spot. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  9. Elbroch, M.; Marks, E.; Boretos, D.C. (2001). Bird Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species. Stackpole Books. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-8117-4253-5. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
  10. Lockwood, Mark (January 2010). Basic Texas birds: a field guide. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 168–169. ISBN 978-0-292-71349-9.
  11. "Greater Roadrunner Life History, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". Online bird guide, bird ID help, life history, bird sounds from Cornell. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  12. "Bird Sounds".
  13. "Roadrunners". Avian Web. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  14. Famolaro, Pete. "Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus)". California Partners in Flight Coastal Scrub and Chaparral Bird Conservation Plan. Point Blue. Archived from the original on 5 November 2004. Retrieved 21 Aug 2015. No federal or state [management] status. No other special status. Unitt (1984) indicates that roadrunners are habitat limited and have experienced a reduction in numbers due to urbanization.
  15. "roadrunner vs rattlesnake". YouTube. 20 March 2014. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22.
  16. "The Roadrunner". Desert USA. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  17. "With the exception of breeding pairs, roadrunners are solitary (Hughes 1996). Pairs mate for life (Terres 1980)."
  18. "Information on the Roadrunner | The Nature Conservancy". Nature.org. 2016-07-15. Retrieved 2016-09-14.
  19. "Usually 1-3 meters above ground; infrequently higher than 3 meters (Hughes 1996)."
  20. "Native American Indian Roadrunner Legends, Meaning and Symbolism from the Myths of Many Tribes". www.native-languages.org. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  21. Hull, Kerry; Fergus, Rob (1 December 2017). "Birds as Seers: an Ethno-Ornithological Approach to Omens and Prognostication Among the Ch'Orti' Maya of Guatemala". Journal of Ethnobiology. 37 (4): 617. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.604. S2CID 89743087.
  22. Hull, Kerry (2015-08-03). "Ethno-ornithological Perspectives on the Ch'ol Maya". Reitaku Review. 17: 42–92. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  23. "TOHONO 'O'ODHAM-ENGLISH DICTIONARY" (PDF). University at Buffalo.
  24. "Tohono Tadai Transit Center - Transit.Wiki". www.transit.wiki. 29 June 2012. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  25. "State Bird | Maggie Toulouse Oliver - New Mexico Secretary of State". Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  26. U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service. "The Coyote". Big Bend National Park. Retrieved 9 June 2022.

General references

  • Alsop, Fred J. III (2002). Birds of North America (1st American ed.). New York: DK. ISBN 0-7894-8001-8.
  • del Hoyo, Josep; Baptista, Luis, eds. (1997). Sandgrouse to cuckoos. Barcelona: Lynx Ed. ISBN 84-87334-22-9.
  • Harrison, George (2005). "Comical Cuckoo". Birder's World. 19: 56–58.
  • Hutchins, Michael, ed. (2003). Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia (2nd ed.). Detroit: Gale. ISBN 0-7876-5785-9.
  • Meinzer, Wyman (1993). "Beep! Beep! Better pull over, folks – it's the roadrunner". Smithsonian. 23: 58.
  • Perrins, Christopher M., ed. (1990). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Birds: The Definitive Reference to Birds of The World (1st Prentice Hall Press ed.). New York: Prentice Hall Editions. ISBN 0-13-083635-4.
  • National Geographic Society (2002). Field Guide to the Birds of North America (4th ed.). Washington D.C.: National Geographic. p. 244. ISBN 0792268776.
  • Wetmore, Alexander; Kellog, Peter Paul (1965). Water, Prey, and Game Birds of North America. Washington D.C.: National Geographic Society.

Further reading

  • Whitson, Martha A. (May 1983). "The Roadrunner: Clown of the Desert". National Geographic. Vol. 163, no. 5. pp. 694–702. ISSN 0027-9358. OCLC 643483454.

External links

image
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Geococcyx.
image
Look up roadrunner in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  • Distribution map of the Greater Roadrunner
  • Greater Roadrunner sounds
  • Video clips of roadrunners in action
  • [1]

Author: www.NiNa.Az

Publication date: May 25, 2025 / 07:57

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The roadrunners genus Geococcyx also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks are two species of fast running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests They are found in the southwestern and south central United States Mexico and Central America usually in the desert Although capable of flight roadrunners generally run away from predators On the ground some have been measured at 32 km h 20 mph RoadrunnerGreater roadrunnerScientific classificationDomain EukaryotaKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass AvesOrder CuculiformesFamily CuculidaeSubfamily NeomorphinaeGenus Geococcyx Wagler 1831Type speciesGeococcyx variegata Wagler 1831SpeciesG californianus G veloxSpeciesThe subfamily Neomorphinae the New World ground cuckoos includes 11 species of birds while the genus Geococcyx has just two Genus Geococcyx Wagler 1831 two species Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated populationGreater roadrunner Geococcyx californianus Lesson 1829 Mexico and the southwestern and south central United States Size Habitat Diet LC Lesser roadrunner Geococcyx velox Wagner 1836 Mexico and Central America Size Habitat Diet LC MorphologyThree views of the same specimen The roadrunner generally ranges in size from 56 to 61 cm 22 to 24 in from tail to beak The average weight is about 230 430 g 8 15 oz The roadrunner is a slender black brown and white streaked ground bird with a distinctive head crest It has long legs strong feet and an oversized dark bill The tail is broad with white tips on the three outer tail feathers The bird has a bare patch of skin behind each eye this patch is shaded blue anterior to red posterior The lesser roadrunner is slightly smaller not as streaky and has a smaller bill Both the lesser roadrunner and the greater roadrunner leave behind very distinct X track marks appearing as if they are travelling in both directions Roadrunners and other members of the cuckoo family have zygodactyl feet The roadrunner can run at speeds of up to 32 km h 20 mph and generally prefer sprinting to flying though it will fly to escape predators During flight the short rounded wings reveal a white crescent in the primary feathers Vocalization source source Roadrunner beak clatter The roadrunner has a slow and descending dove like coo It also makes a rapid vocalized clattering sound with its beak Geographic rangeRoadrunners inhabit the Southwestern United States to parts of Missouri Arkansas and Louisiana as well as Mexico and Central America They live in arid lowland or mountainous shrubland or woodland They are non migratory staying in their breeding area year round The greater roadrunner is not currently considered threatened in the US but is habitat limited Food and foraging habitsGreater roadrunner with a lizard The roadrunner is an opportunistic omnivore Its diet normally consists of insects such as grasshoppers crickets caterpillars and beetles small reptiles such as lizards and snakes including rattlesnakes rodents and other small mammals spiders including tarantulas scorpions centipedes snails small birds and nestlings eggs and fruits and seeds like those from prickly pear cactuses and sumacs The lesser roadrunner eats mainly insects The roadrunner forages on the ground and when hunting usually runs after prey from under cover It may leap to catch insects and commonly batters certain prey against the ground The roadrunner is one of the few animals that preys upon rattlesnakes it is also the only real predator of tarantula hawk wasps Behavior and breedingGreater roadrunners often become habituated to the presence of people The roadrunner usually lives alone or in pairs Breeding pairs are monogamous and mate for life and pairs may hold a territory all year During the courtship display the male bows alternately lifting and dropping his wings and spreading his tail He parades in front of the female with his head high and his tail and wings drooped and may bring an offering of food The reproductive season is spring to mid summer depending on geographic location and species The roadrunner s nest is often composed of sticks and may sometimes contain leaves feathers snakeskins or dung It is commonly placed 1 to 3 meters 3 to 10 feet above ground level in a low tree bush or cactus Roadrunner eggs are generally white The greater roadrunner generally lays 2 6 eggs per clutch but the lesser roadrunner s clutches are typically smaller Hatching is asynchronous Both sexes incubate the nest with males incubating the nest at night and feed the hatchlings For the first one to two weeks after the young hatch one parent remains at the nest The young leave the nest at two to three weeks old foraging with parents for a few days after Thermoregulation source source source source source source source Greater roadrunner warming itself in the sun exposing the dark skin and feathers on its back During the cold desert night the roadrunner lowers its body temperature slightly going into a slight torpor to conserve energy To warm itself during the day the roadrunner exposes dark patches of skin on its back to the sun Indigenous loreThe Hopi and other Pueblo tribes believed roadrunners were medicine birds capable of warding off evil spirits The X shaped footprints of roadrunners were seen as sacred symbols believed to confuse evil spirits by concealing the bird s direction of travel Stylized roadrunner tracks have been found in the rock art of ancestral Southwestern tribes like the Mogollon cultures Roadrunner feathers were used to decorate Pueblo cradleboards for spiritual protection Among Mexican Indian and American Indian tribes such as the Pima seeing a roadrunner is considered good luck While some Mexican tribes revered the roadrunner and never killed it most used its meat as a folk remedy for illness or to boost stamina and strength Central American Indigenous peoples have various beliefs about the roadrunner The Ch orti known to call it t unk u x or mu have taboos against harming the bird The Ch ol Maya believe roadrunners possess special powers calling it ajkumtz u due to its call which is believed to induce tiredness in listeners The word for roadrunner in the O odham language is taḏai which is the name of a transit center in Tucson Arizona In the O odham tradition the roadrunner is also credited with bringing fire to the people In mediaThe roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico The roadrunner was made popular by the Warner Bros cartoon characters Wile E Coyote and the Road Runner created in 1949 and the subject of a long running series of theatrical cartoon shorts In each episode the cunning insidious and constantly hungry Wile E Coyote repeatedly attempts to catch and subsequently eat the Road Runner but is never successful The cartoons led to a misconception that the call of the roadrunner is meep meep because the roadrunner in this cartoon series made that sound instead of the aforementioned sound of a real roadrunner In some shorts the Road Runner makes a noise while sticking his tongue out at Wile E Coyote which resembles its actual call The cartoons rely on a misconception that a roadrunner is much faster than a coyote In fact a coyote s fastest sprinting speed is 64 km h 40 mph which is twice that of a roadrunner s at 32 km h 20 mph Citations Cuculidae aviansystematics org The Trust for Avian Systematics Retrieved 2023 08 05 roadrunner The Free Dictionary Farlex Retrieved 3 May 2012 roadrunner Merriam Webster Retrieved 3 May 2012 Myers P R Parr C S Jones T Hammond G S Dewey T A Neomorphinae New World ground cuckoos Animal Diversity Web University of Michigan Retrieved 2009 08 12 Avian Web Roadrunners Retrieved 3 May 2012 Greater Roadrunners Avian Web Retrieved 3 May 2012 Lesser Roadrunners Avian Web Retrieved 3 May 2012 Roadrunner Desert Animals The Animal Spot Retrieved 3 May 2012 Elbroch M Marks E Boretos D C 2001 Bird Tracks amp Sign A Guide to North American Species Stackpole Books p 160 ISBN 978 0 8117 4253 5 Retrieved 2019 09 04 Lockwood Mark January 2010 Basic Texas birds a field guide Austin University of Texas Press pp 168 169 ISBN 978 0 292 71349 9 Greater Roadrunner Life History All About Birds Cornell Lab of Ornithology Online bird guide bird ID help life history bird sounds from Cornell Retrieved 2019 09 02 Bird Sounds Roadrunners Avian Web Retrieved 3 May 2012 Famolaro Pete Greater Roadrunner Geococcyx californianus California Partners in Flight Coastal Scrub and Chaparral Bird Conservation Plan Point Blue Archived from the original on 5 November 2004 Retrieved 21 Aug 2015 No federal or state management status No other special status Unitt 1984 indicates that roadrunners are habitat limited and have experienced a reduction in numbers due to urbanization roadrunner vs rattlesnake YouTube 20 March 2014 Archived from the original on 2021 12 22 The Roadrunner Desert USA Retrieved 3 May 2012 With the exception of breeding pairs roadrunners are solitary Hughes 1996 Pairs mate for life Terres 1980 Information on the Roadrunner The Nature Conservancy Nature org 2016 07 15 Retrieved 2016 09 14 Usually 1 3 meters above ground infrequently higher than 3 meters Hughes 1996 Native American Indian Roadrunner Legends Meaning and Symbolism from the Myths of Many Tribes www native languages org Retrieved 2017 06 26 Hull Kerry Fergus Rob 1 December 2017 Birds as Seers an Ethno Ornithological Approach to Omens and Prognostication Among the Ch Orti Maya of Guatemala Journal of Ethnobiology 37 4 617 doi 10 2993 0278 0771 37 4 604 S2CID 89743087 Hull Kerry 2015 08 03 Ethno ornithological Perspectives on the Ch ol Maya Reitaku Review 17 42 92 Retrieved 2019 09 02 TOHONO O ODHAM ENGLISH DICTIONARY PDF University at Buffalo Tohono Tadai Transit Center Transit Wiki www transit wiki 29 June 2012 Retrieved 2017 06 26 State Bird Maggie Toulouse Oliver New Mexico Secretary of State Retrieved 2023 08 28 U S Department of the Interior National Park Service The Coyote Big Bend National Park Retrieved 9 June 2022 General referencesAlsop Fred J III 2002 Birds of North America 1st American ed New York DK ISBN 0 7894 8001 8 del Hoyo Josep Baptista Luis eds 1997 Sandgrouse to cuckoos Barcelona Lynx Ed ISBN 84 87334 22 9 Harrison George 2005 Comical Cuckoo Birder s World 19 56 58 Hutchins Michael ed 2003 Grzimek s Animal Life Encyclopedia 2nd ed Detroit Gale ISBN 0 7876 5785 9 Meinzer Wyman 1993 Beep Beep Better pull over folks it s the roadrunner Smithsonian 23 58 Perrins Christopher M ed 1990 The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Birds The Definitive Reference to Birds of The World 1st Prentice Hall Press ed New York Prentice Hall Editions ISBN 0 13 083635 4 National Geographic Society 2002 Field Guide to the Birds of North America 4th ed Washington D C National Geographic p 244 ISBN 0792268776 Wetmore Alexander Kellog Peter Paul 1965 Water Prey and Game Birds of North America Washington D C National Geographic Society Further readingWhitson Martha A May 1983 The Roadrunner Clown of the Desert National Geographic Vol 163 no 5 pp 694 702 ISSN 0027 9358 OCLC 643483454 External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to Geococcyx Look up roadrunner in Wiktionary the free dictionary Distribution map of the Greater Roadrunner Greater Roadrunner sounds Video clips of roadrunners in action 1

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