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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing roadrunners. These quick birds come in two living species: the greater roadrunner and the lesser roadrunner; their qualifying names specifically refer to their stature. Greater roadrunners reach about 1.8 feet (55cm) in length while lesser roadrunners reach about 1.5 feet (45cm) in length. The name roadrunner comes from observations of them running along roads; go figure, a common name that makes some sense. They’re also known as ground cuckoos, and this name makes sense, too! Roadrunners are part of the cuckoo family and they spend a good portion of their time on the ground - though they don’t nest or rest there. Roadrunners have wings, and can use them to get away from a predator or glide down a hill, but they generally don’t fly and can only do so for short periods of time.

Greater roadrunners range throughout the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Movement northward is blocked by cold winters which they can’t survive. The lesser roadrunner is found throughout Central America from southern Mexico to Nicaragua. These birds live in open, arid landscapes like desert scrublands. Lesser roadrunners may even take to open pine forests, however neither species lives in dense woodland.

Roadrunners hunting using sight and speed. They can reach speeds of nearly 20 miles per hour while chasing down prey. Prey to roadrunners includes insects and other arthropods like scorpions, small mammals, and reptiles including lizards and even rattlesnakes - though these are not typically on the menu. They swallow their prey whole and if something is a bit too bony for swallowing they’ll crush it by slamming it against rocks to break it up. Mm crushed bones. Roadrunners may also eat other birds including hummingbirds which they’ve been observed grabbing straight out of the air with a leap from the ground.

Predators to roadrunners include hawks, skunks, raccoons, domestic cats, and more. While coyotes can actually outrun these speedy ground birds, the canids don’t really go after them as prey - at least, not as adults. Coyotes will, however, raid a roadrunner nest. A roadrunner’s nest is built a few feet off the ground in a small tree, bush, or even cactus! The female lays two to seven eggs over the course of a few days. The eggs are incubated for just under three weeks and begin hatching in the order they were laid; some siblings may be up to a week apart in age! They leave the nest within three weeks of hatching and are able to run after and catch their own prey, though they’ll still take handouts from their parents for over a month. In the wild they only live to be about eight years old.

As members of the cuckoo family, roadrunners may occasionally practice brood parasitism in which their eggs are laid in the nests of other birds such as ravens and mockingbirds thus leaving the rearing of their young to these other birds. Also of note is that roadrunners have a cooing like call that sounds kind of like a pigeon!

For more facts on roadrunners, check out the links in the description. Thank you to SonoranSpeedstar for today’s request! Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files!