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Photo by Larry Fitzgerald
Photo Copyright Larry Fitzgerald
Greater Roadrunner
Geococcyx californianus
NatureServe conservation status
Global (G-rank): G5
State (S-rank): S2S3
External links
General information
The greater roadrunner, Geococcyx californianus, occurs across the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, from the Pacific coast to the Mississippi River. It is typically found in desert scrub habitats. In Utah, this bird is restricted to the southwestern corner of the state. The greater roadrunner consumes very little plant material, subsisting almost entirely on animal prey, but the type of food consumed varies seasonally. Insects are the main prey base in the early spring. During the breeding season, the diet contains large, high-energy foods, such as lizards, snakes, and small mammals. When feeding young, adults again eat mainly insects, bringing any large vertebrate prey that is captured to the nest. When reptiles and insects are scarce in winter months, birds become an important component of the diet.
Breeding pairs are monogamous, and defend hunting territories against intruding neighbors. Courtship rituals are complex, and often the male presents a lizard or other gift to the female during his displays. The female builds the nest, and the male supplies the nest material. The nest is usually located in a small tree, shrub, or cactus, usually three to ten feet off the ground, and is a shallow bowl of twigs and stems lined with leaves, grass, and snake skins. Three to six eggs are laid and then incubated continuously for nineteen or twenty days until they hatch. During this time, the parents share incubating responsibilities during the day, but only the males incubate at night. Young leave the nest after about eleven days, and are able to feed themselves after about sixteen days.
Species range
RESIDENT: from northern California, western and central Nevada, southern Utah, Colorado, southern Kansas, central and eastern Oklahoma, southwestern Missouri, western Arizona, and north-central Louisiana south to southern Baja California and the central mainland of Mexico to the Gulf coast of Texas (AOU 1983).
Habitat
ALL SEASONS: Desert scrub, chaparral, edges of cultivated lands, and arid open situations with scattered brush, locally in cedar glades and pine-oak woodland (Tropical and Subtropical zones) (AOU 1983). BREEDING: Usually nests low (3-15 ft from ground) in tree, shrub or clump of cactus. Rarely nests on ground. The nest is made of sticks lined with leaves grasses, feathers, snakeskin, dry pieces of livestock manure, etc.
Food habits
Feeds on insects, lizards, small snakes, gophers, mice, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, and a variety of fruit. Forages on the ground.
Ecology
Pairs are year-round residents in their territory. Average diameter of territories in California (Bryant 1916), Arizona (Calder 1967), and west Texas (Hughes 1996) was 800 meters. Territories up to 1 km wide along longest dimension in southern Texas (Folse 1974).
Reproductive characteristics
Clutch size typically 3-5, sometimes 2-6. Incubation 17-18 days. Both parents tend young. Young fledge 17-19 days after hatching. Pair bond apparently permanent.
References
- Hughes, J. M. 1996. Greater roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus). Birds of North America 244: 24 pp.
- Baicich, P. J., and C. J. O. Harrison. 1997. A guide to the nests, eggs, and nestlings of North American Birds, Second Ed. Academic Press, San Diego. 347 pp.
