Greater Roadrunner

Geococcyx californianus

Order

CUCULIFORMES

Family

Cuckoos and Roadrunners (Cuculidae)

Code 4

GRRO

Code 6

GEOCAL

ITIS

Breeding Location:

Bushes, shrubs, and thickets, Desert, Grasslands, Desert, semi, Scrub vegetation areas

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Thought to pair for life, Solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Fairly common to common

Egg Color:

White to pale yellow

Number of Eggs:

Incubation Days:

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Twigs with lining of grass, mesquite pods, leaves, feathers, snakeskin, and horse or cattle droppings.

Migration:

Nonmigratory

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General

Greater Roadrunner: Large, ground-dwelling cuckoo with overall brown, white and buff streaked appearance. Head has a shaggy crest. Face has blue and orange bare patch of skin behind eyes. Tail is long. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Greater Roadrunner: Resident in southwest U.S. and Mexico; found in open, arid country with scattered thickets.

Breeding and Nesting

Greater Roadrunner: Two white to pale yellow eggs are laid in a flat stick nest lined with grass, and usually built in a thick shrub or cactus close to the ground. Eggs are incubated for 20 days mostly by the male.

Foraging and Feeding

Greater Roadrunner: Diet consists mainly of insects, snails, lizards, scorpions, spiders, young birds, small mammals, and in winter, plant material. Famous for its ability to prey on rattlesnakes; picks snake up by the tail and kills it by slamming the head onto the ground.

Readily Eats

Suet

Vocalization

Greater Roadrunner: Emits clucks, crows, dove-like coos, dog-like whines, and hoarse guttural notes.

Similar Species

Greater Roadrunner: None in range.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden2.

Field Guide to Birds of North America