This article is about the boo. For early uses, see Roadrunner ( disambiguation )
The roadrunners ( genus Geococcyx ), besides known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests. They are found in the southwest and south-central United States and Mexico, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] normally in the defect. Although capable of escape, roadrunners broadly run away from predators. On the grind, some have been clocked at 32 kilometers per hour ( 20 miles per hour ) while a few hold besides been clocked up to 43 km/h ( 27 miles per hour ).
Reading: Roadrunner – Wikipedia
Species [edit ]
The subfamily Neomorphinae, the New World ground cuckoo, includes 11 species of birds, [ 3 ] while the genus Geococcyx has good two : [ 4 ]
morphology [edit ]
Three views of the same specimen The roadrunner by and large ranges in size from 56 to 61 centimeter ( 22 to 24 in ) from stern to beak. The average system of weights is about 230–430 g ( 8–15 oz ). [ 7 ] The roadrunner is a big, slender, black-brown and white-streaked ground bird with a distinctive head cap. It has long leg, impregnable feet, and an outsize dark bill. The tail is broad with white tips on the three outer tail feathers. The bird has a bare patch of clamber behind each center ; this eyepatch is shaded blue front tooth to red back tooth. The lesser roadrunner is slenderly smaller, not as streaked, and has a smaller charge. Both the lesser roadrunner and the greater roadrunner leave behind very discrete “ adam ” chase marks appearing as if they are travelling in both directions. [ 8 ] Roadrunners and early members of the cuckoo family have zygodactyl feet. The roadrunner can run at speeds of up to 32 km/h ( 20 miles per hour ) [ 9 ] and generally prefer sprinting to flying, though it will fly to escape predators. [ 10 ] During flight, the abruptly, attack wings reveal a white crescent in the primary feathers .
utterance [edit ]
The roadrunner has a dense and descending dove-like “ coo ”. It besides makes a rapid, voice clattering sound with its beak. [ 11 ]
Geographic crop [edit ]
Roadrunners inhabit the Southwestern United States, to parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, a well as Mexico and Central America. They live in arid lowland or mountainous shrubland or forest. They are non-migratory, staying in their engender area year-round. [ 12 ] The greater roadrunner is not presently considered threatened in the US, but is habitat-limited. [ 13 ]
food and forage habits [edit ]
The roadrunner is an opportunist omnivore. Its diet normally consists of insects ( such as grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and beetles ), small reptiles ( such as lizards and snakes, including rattlesnakes ), [ 14 ] rodents and other small mammals, spiders ( including european wolf spider ), scorpions, centipedes, snails, small birds ( and nestlings ), eggs, and fruits and seeds like those from barbed pear cactuses and sumac. The lesser roadrunner eats chiefly insects. The roadrunner forages on the land and, when hunting, normally runs after raven from under cover. It may leap to catch insects, and normally batters certain prey against the ground. Because of its celerity, the roadrunner is one of the few animals that preys upon rattlesnakes ; [ 15 ] it is besides the only actual predator of european wolf spider hawk wasp. [ 12 ]
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Behavior and breeding [edit ]
Greater roadrunners frequently become habituated to the presence of people. The roadrunner normally lives entirely or in pairs. Breeding pairs are monogamous and mate for liveliness, [ 16 ] and pairs may hold a district all year. During the courtship display, the male bows, alternately lifting and dropping his wings and spreading his stern. He parades in front of the female with his head high and his tail and wings drooped, and may bring an offer of food. The generative season is spring to mid-summer ( depending on geographic location and species ). [ 12 ] The roadrunner ‘s nest is often composed of sticks, and may sometimes contain leaves, feathers, snakeskins, or dung. [ 17 ] It is normally placed 1 to 3 meters ( 3 to 10 feet ) above ground charge [ 18 ] in a low tree, bush, or cactus. Roadrunner eggs are broadly white. The greater roadrunner generally lays 2–6 eggs per clutch, but the lesser roadrunner ‘s clutches are typically smaller. Hatching is asynchronous. Both sex incubate the nest ( with males incubating the nest at night ) and feed the hatchlings. For the first one to two weeks after the young hatch, one parent remains at the nest. The young leave the nest at two to three weeks old, foraging with parents for a few days after. [ 12 ]
Thermoregulation [edit ]
Greater roadrunner warming itself in the sun, exposing the dark skin and feathers on its back During the cold desert night, the roadrunner lowers its soundbox temperature slightly, going into a slight torpor to conserve energy. To warm itself during the day, the roadrunner exposes night patches of skin on its second to the sun. [ 12 ]
autochthonal lore [edit ]
The Hopi and other Pueblo tribes believed that roadrunners were medicine birds and could protect against evil spirits. Their unusual X-shaped footprints are used as sacred symbols to ward off evil in many Pueblo tribes—partially because they invoke the protective office of the roadrunners themselves, and partially because the X supreme headquarters allied powers europe of the tracks conceals which direction the bird is headed ( therefore throwing malignant spirits off racetrack. ) Stylized roadrunner tracks have been found in the rock art of ancestral Southwestern tribes like the Anasazi and Mogollon cultures, deoxyadenosine monophosphate well. Roadrunner feathers were traditionally used to decorate Pueblo cradleboards as spiritual protection for the baby. In mexican indian and american english Indian kin, such as the Pima, it is considered full luck to see a roadrunner. In some Mexican tribes, the shuttlecock was considered hallowed and never killed, but most mexican Indians used the meat of the roadrunner as a tribe remedy to cure illness or to boost stamina and potency. [ 19 ] autochthonal peoples of Central America have developed numerous beliefs about the roadrunner. The Ch ’ orti ’, who call it t’unk’u’x or mu’, have taboos against harming the boo. [ 20 ] The Ch’ol Maya believe roadrunners to have extra powers. It is known to them as ajkumtz’u’, derived from the dame ‘s margin call that is said to make the hearer feel tired. [ 21 ] The word for roadrunner in the O’odham language is taḏai, which is the name of a passage plaza in Tucson, Arizona. [ 22 ] [ 23 ]
In media [edit ]
The roadrunner was made popular by the Warner Bros. cartoon character Road Runner, created in 1948, and the subject of a long-running series of theatrical cartoon shorts. In each sequence, the craft, insidious, and constantly hungry Coyote repeatedly attempts to catch and subsequently eat the Road Runner, but is never successful. The cartoons led to a misconception that roadrunners say “ meep, meep ” because the roadrunner in this cartoon series made that sound rather of the aforesaid sound of a real roadrunner .