Roadrunner Reality

ROAD RUNNER FACTS & FANTASY

His enemy is NOT the coyote, he CAN fly and he DOESN'T go beep-beep When Dick George's bird-loving sister-in-law visited Arizona, the one bird she yearned to see was a roadrunner - a snake-stalking, car-chasing, myth-making cuckoo with an attitude. No problem, insisted George, the Phoenix Zoo's community partnership coordinator, who sees roadrunners all the time. He knew their habitats and hangouts and had one week to deliver and cover himself in ornithological glory in the eyes of his bird-watching in-law.

In the course of the week, as her skepticism grew and his ego shrank, he dragged her across southern Arizona -seeking a bird that suddenly seemed as mythical in life as in thousand-year-old Native American stories. In the process, George got a whole new appreciation of this speedy, mostly ground-hugging bird whose confusing tracks point in two directions at the same timejust one of its traits copied by Indian warriors hoping to confound enemies.

At the end of his sister-in-law's visit, the crestfallen George delivered her to the airport terminal, humbled by a bird weighing in at about 9% ounces, including flippant tail and cocky bearing.

Querulous, funny, serious, playful, fearless, caring and curious - the roadrunner sports a jaunty outlook wrapped in a bundle of tan, white, black and metallic bronze.

The roadrunner earned its name when settlers traveling westward first discovered that this odd, vivacious bird liked to race their wagons. But Mexicans were calling the bird corre camino ("it runs the road") long before Europeans settled the lands in the southwestern United States. It measures just 22 to 24 inches in length - half of which is tail-but has earned quite a reputation and many names from many cultures. In Texas, it goes by the name "chaparral cock;" in New Mexico it's known as "lizard-eater" or "snake-eater;" and in Mexico it's dubbed paisano ("compatriot" or "countryman"). Scientists know this member of the diverse cuckoo family as Geococcyx californianus.

Fact or Fantasy

the name "chaparral cock;" in New Mexico it's known as "lizard-eater" or "snake-eater;" and in Mexico it's dubbed paisano ("compatriot" or "countryman"). Scientists know this member of the diverse cuckoo family as Geococcyx californianus.

The roadrunner, a denizen of the lower Sonoran Desert, tends to stay in the sagebrush flatlands, but isolated wanderers have been spotted at elevations of 10,000 feet. Most people consider the roadrunner an Arizona bird, but it's actually the state bird of New Mexico and appears in the logo of the Texas Folklore Society.

The roadrunner resembles a hen pheasant, but is distinguished by a bright-orange patch of bare skin behind its eyes, which is sometimes obscured, and a crest of black and bronze-green feathers that rise and lower - depending on emotion. "You can almost read what's going on in their minds by watching their crests," said George. "When it's flat, they're getting ready to get away; then they might see something that interests them and it goes right back up. It's almost like a curiosity meter."

Roadrunners tend to be loners, remaining solitary and mostly silent except during nesting season. And unlike some other cuckoos which lay their eggs in other birds' nests and move on roadrunners take care of their own young.

The birds have fascinated human beings for thousands of years, partly because they can stretch their 8-inch stride to 20 inches and reach speeds of more than 15 miles per hour. The Tarahumara Indians of the Sierra Madre hoped a meal of roadrunner meat would confer on them the bird's fleetness and endurance. The Apaches also revere its speed with their legend of the Swift Wind chronicling the tale of several boys who are transformed into eagles and one boy who becomes the bird that runs the Earth. The boy who fails to fly on an eagle's wing is ridiculed and scorned by the tribe, which sees his transformation as a failure. But after he saves them from a pack of hungry wolves, tribe members realize that greatness can come in a less regal package.

The Pueblo people formed legends and rites around the roadrunner's odd feet. Like other cuckoos, the roadrunner has two toes pointing forward and two backward, which form a track in the shape of an X. This means the tracks point both forward and backward, a trait termed "zygodactyl." The Zunis would cross two of the bird's tail feathers in the toes of moccasins to confer courage on the warriors and cast confusion on their enemies.

The roadrunner's inscrutability also makes it valuable in ceremonials that guard against witchcraft and in funeral rites. In part, that's because the roadrunner remains restricted to the Earth, as the dead are bound beneath it.

Placing roadrunner tracks around the house of someone who has died is said to ensure a safe afterlife and confuse any lingering evil spirits, according to the tradition of the Cochiti Pueblo Indians.

Hopi Indians have a roadrunner kachina, which occasionally is used in the kiva or during dances with several different kachinas. The roadrunner, or Hospoa, kachina doll is seldom carved and is one of the few bird kachinas that is not realistic-looking. Its bold colors are more reminiscent of a clown kachina, and the X of the roadrunner's tracks marks the figure's eyes.

Although the roadrunner has a reputation for being a non-flying bird, it actually can fly, if pressed. It often volplanes, or glides, with its short, rounded wings outspread, but prefers to run. The Sia Indians of New Mexicoexalted the roadrunner's arrowlike racing posture in their pottery. The creature also appears as a bird of war in petroglyphs on sandstone walls across the Southwest.

Experts trace roadrunners as far back as the Pleistocene epoch, nearly 2 million years ago. But the Sonoran Desert re-formed many times during the Pleistocene interglacials, which brought warm periods between freezing times.

Roadrunners arrived as permanent residents only about 9,000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age, which converted forest lakes into grasslands and deserts. At the beginning of the Holocene epoch, roadrunners hit the ground running and have been gobbling lizards and terrorizing snakes ever since.

"We don't appreciate how hard this critter works to make a living," said George. "He is just another guy trying to make a living in an increasingly difficult environment."

For example, roadrunners may drop their body temperature by as much as 11 degrees during the night, to help them conserve energy.

With the first glint of the morning sun, the birds ruffle their feathers to expose the dark patches of skin on their backs, which act as solar panels and raise their temperatures without energy being expended.

The roadrunner's big appetite belies its size.

It meets its needs by being an opportunistic and voracious omnivore, eating everything from berries and insects to horned lizards. However, the roadrunner is probably best known for battles with snakes, which it swallows head-first and digests in segments. It can swallow a two-foot snake in less than a few minutes, but occasionally, perhaps not wanting to appear gluttonous, a roadrunner might be seen with a tail hanging out of its beak while waiting for its stomach to work on the delicacy.

Food plays an important role in courtship.