Roadrunners
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I am not in the SW and am missing seeing Roadies, The best alternative was to generate new posts from my archives. Here is one from my last visit to California.
Texas Icons. Roadrunner and Bluebonnets I have been hoping to get this opportunity all this spring. This roadrunner gave me the perfect pose in the perfect spot with the morning sun hitting it. . Thanks for looking and have a great weekend
Two more Arizona shots this evening. This Greater Roadrunner and a Cactus Wren.
Buckeye. Maricopa County, Arizona.
Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade
Activists for birds and wildlife
I missed Cinco de Mayo by a week but my two posts tonight have a SW flavor in a belated recognition. Further, Roadrunners are one of my favorite species to photograph.
Southern California
A Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) in the desert landscape near Buckeye, Arizona, U.S.A.
21 February, 2014.
Slide # GWB_20140221_2848.CR2
Use of this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission is not permitted.
© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.
One of my pet "wild" roadrunners posing in front of two desert Brittlebush bushes. (only one has flowered so far). With the small amount of rain we have received recently, they are starting to bloom. I'm about 3 ft next to this amazing bird sitting on the ground taking this shot with my iPhone. Yes, I did bribe it with a few mealworms and some small pieces of meat to get it to standstill.
Roadrunners are aptly named. While they can fly, it seems they do a lot more ground travel. And they can outpace a human in a footrace. But, unlike the cartoons, they cannot outpace a coyote. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a coyote may top out at a speed of 43 mph (~69 kph) while the roadrunner is only about 1/2 that speed. Still impressive though! They're very well adapted to the Desert Southwest, getting a lot of their moisture from the foods they eat like small juicy mammals or reptiles. Greater roadrunners are roughly the size of a crow (ish). Roadrunners are in the Cuckoo family of birds. (just learned that today 😁)
"Road Runner, Road Runner runs down the road all day,
Even the coyote can't make him change his ways.
Road Runner, the coyote's after you,
Road Runner, if he catches you you're through."
excerpt from the Road Runner Show theme song
I always like to read a little about the birds I capture in pixels. The Greater Roadrunner can outrun the average human. But coyotes can reach speeds of up to 43 mph (~70 kph), about twice the speed of a roadrunner. This was shot at Veterans' Oasis Park in Chandler, AZ. Plenty of coyotes there so hopefully this guy has his best running shoes on and thinks of using that gift of flight that he has.
A greater roadrunner in the rather beige desert in which it lives. I kind of like these tough birds. This one had a hoard of photographers gathered around it. They're not uncommon, but not an everyday sight either.
Roadrunner
Sweetwater wetlands
We made the rounds today. Started at Silverbell Lake and ended up at Sweetwater. Good day of birding.
Tucson, Arizona
At the Great Southwest exhibit, Zoo America in Hershey, PA -
This facility is a gem. Burrowing owls, Roadrunners, Gambel’s quails and desert tortoises coexist in a large indoor garden... without glass or wire caging.
A Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) scurries through the scrub brush of the desert near Cave Creek Canyon in southeast Arizona, U.S.A.
2 March, 2012.
Slide # GWB_20120302_1230.CR2
Use of this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission is not permitted.
© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.
Roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus) are long, slender birds with long expressive tails, shaggy crests and strong legs for running. These birds are known for their swift and characteristic style of running (up to 15 mph for short distances). They prefer dry open habitat with scattered brush. Roadrunners range throughout the southwestern United States and into central Mexico.
We saw this roadrunner at Watson Lake. He was not shy at all. He ran right up to me and got startlingly close. Cool birds
The roadrunners (genus Geococcyx), also 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 southwestern and south-central United States and Mexico,[1][2] usually in the desert. Although capable of flight, roadrunners generally run away from predators. On the ground, some have been clocked at 32 km/h (20 mph) while a few have also been clocked up to 43 km/h (27 mph).[ci
Have a wonderful new week.
This is such a cute picture of these little characters, which are my “pet” (still wild) roadrunners. They are actually watching my 2 “pet” ravens coming in to land.
Roadrunners are fun birds to shoot. One normally only sees them, you guessed it, running across the road! I saw a few when I was wandering on my own in South Texas but saw many more at the ranch blinds. This one snatched a bug and I was just able to snatch a picture of it. (Geococcyx Californianus) (Sony a9iii, 200-600 lens @ 588mm, 1/3200 second, f/6.3, ISO 800)
You can see where the roadrunner gets it's name. For whatever reason, I liked this shot. I like the running action
This is a desert bird. They prey on many things, but moisture-rich mammals and reptiles supply them with some water in an otherwise arid environment. According the the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, they eat a variety of poisonous prey including venomous lizards and scorpions to to no ill effect. Apparently they will sometimes hunt rattle snakes in tandem. One distracts the snake by jumping and flapping while the other roadrunner sneaks up and pits it’s head then bashes the snake against a rock. Ok, here’s the gross part - if the snake is too long to swallow whole, the roadrunner will walk around with a bit of the snake hanging out of its mouth, swallowing the snake a bit at a time as the part of the snake in the stomach digests. That to me is just crazy