Written
By: Skeeter & Marolyn Lasuzzo
Photography
By: Skeeter Lasuzzo
Have you ever been riding down a
dirt road and have a bird run out in front of you and sprint down the road then
dart to the side into the brush? If so, it was probably a Greater
Roadrunner and this situation is believed to be how it got its name. The
Roadrunner's home was originally in the desert southwest, but by the 20th
century it had spread as far east as Louisiana and Missouri.
There are some interesting facts about the Roadrunner.
A Roadrunner will warm up after a cold night by fluffing its back
feathers, exposing its dark skin. The dark skin will absorb heat from the
sun. A Roadrunner can run over 20 miles an hour. It is carnivorous,
feeding on snakes, insects, frogs, and even other birds.
Marolyn and I have seen a roadrunner
crouch down below a small tree next to our bird feeder and wait for small birds
to get a seed from the feeder and fly to the tree. It would then leap
straight up with lightening speed and grab the bird. We have observed the
roadrunner eat the bird feathers and all, but sometimes, we think when it was
feeding young, it would pull all the feathers from the bird until the bird was
featherless and head toward the woods with its prey. Roadrunners have
been known to capture a snake and beat it on a rock until it was dead.
The Pueblo and Hopi Indians believed
the Roadrunner would protect them from evil spirits and early frontier people
believed if you were lost and followed a Roadrunner, it would lead you to a
trail.
We see quite a few Roadrunners at
Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. We watched this one continually catch insects
and run into the woods only to return in a few minutes to catch more insects.
We think it was feeding young.
ED: Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge is located on the Big Mineral arm of Lake Texoma, at 6465 Refuge Road. The refuge lands are open daily from sunrise to sunset, free of charge. Stop by the Visitor Center and Refuge Office, posted hours, for maps, printed wildlife and trail guides and other literature and information. The Visitor Center is staffed by Friends of Hagerman and other volunteers.
Posts
We live on a narrow country back road and seem to have several families of roadrunners on our land. The best thing I've observed was several years ago when one of our kittens was in the front yard (which is very close to the road) and was on the inside of the wire fence while a juvenile roadrunner was on the outside of the fence. Each of them ran up and down the fence line as though chasing the other but neither of them crossed through the wire to the other side or made any aggressive moves while engaged in what seemed like a game to them. Eventually they both tired of it and the roadrunner went down the road........
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