Greater Roadrunner

About the Greater Roadrunner

The Greater Roadrunner is a giant ground cuckoo - nearly two feet long counting the white-tipped tail - streaked brown and white with a shaggy crest, strong blue-gray legs, and a patch of bare blue-and-orange skin behind the eye. Flight is a last resort; a running roadrunner can top 15 miles per hour.

Roadrunners are fearless hunters that take lizards, snakes (including small rattlesnakes), grasshoppers, scorpions, rodents, and the occasional small bird, killing larger prey by slamming it against the ground. Pairs mate for life, defend a territory year-round, and sing a series of low, descending coos that carries a surprising distance. On cold mornings they sun themselves by exposing a patch of black skin on the back.

The roadrunner is a year-round resident across most of Texas wherever open ground and brushy cover meet - desert, ranchland, Hill Country, and the outskirts of town.