Texas Wild: The Greater Roadrunner

Known by many names, the Greater Roadrunner, is an unmistakable bird. Often a bird first recognized and remembered by its many habits, including the method used to kill its prey. The main method is the killing of its prey by brute force, i.e. the beating of the prey upon a nearby object crushing the preys body. It ranges through out the southwest extending into Northern California and into Louisiana. The Greater Roadrunner is not to be confused with the Lesser Roadrunner, these two differ in distribution, the lesser being found in Mexico. This member of the cuckoo family, being a opportunistic hunter, hunts a variety of prey in a variety of ways. Feasting on insects to vertebrates such as snakes (both venomous and non venomous) to cases of capture of birds at bird feeders, such as Purple Martins chicks. The Greater Roadrunner was witness gaining access to these chicks by flight from a nearby tree. Cases have been reported of low flying birds knocked down and fed upon by leaping a roadrunner hiding in scru