BLANE KLEMEK OUTDOORS: Roadrunners are fascinating and distinctive birds – Bemidji Pioneer
Two of my favourite cartoon characters are the Looney Tune characters Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.
Created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese who labored for Warner Brothers, the adversarial cartoon coyote and roadrunner debuted in 1949 and have been making folks giggle ever since.
What with Wile E. Coyote’s limitless entry to the myriad of ACME devices he used to attempt to seize the Roadrunner with, and matched with the Roadrunner’s pace and elusiveness, “meep-meep” vocalizations, and cork-popping tongue noise, poor Wile E. Coyote might by no means catch the Roadrunner. The pair’s interactions had been a sequence of comical failures and escapes.
In the actual world, it’s uncertain that coyotes spend a lot time chasing and capturing roadrunners, though it’s prone to have occurred infrequently.
And whereas coyotes are very ample right here in Minnesota, roadrunners, an attention-grabbing chicken of the American West, won’t ever be discovered right here within the North Star State. Even so, this particular feathered pal is the topic of at the moment’s column.
I’ll hand it to Jones and Maltese for the placing likeness of their cartoon creation Roadrunner to the actual McCoy.
Although the colours of the Roadrunner are approach off and the general dimension of the chicken (virtually ostrich-sized in comparison with Wile E. Coyote), different notable options depicted are comparable — the lengthy tail and neck, the head-crest, lengthy legs, and a conspicuously lengthy and heavy invoice — are traits that actual roadrunners possess.
The total widespread title of this attention-grabbing chicken is the larger roadrunner. In regards to the dimension of the American crow, roadrunners are shut to 2 ft in complete size, weigh round a pound or somewhat extra, and have a wingspan of roughly 19 inches.
A tan and brownish chicken with blackish streaks on varied physique components with white highlights right here and there, roadrunners even have patches of blue pores and skin behind their eyes.
Roadrunners vary primarily within the Desert Southwest, together with Baja California and Mexico, however may also be discovered east of this area virtually to the Mississippi River in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Their most well-liked habitat consists of a variety of vegetation varieties akin to brushy open nation, cacti, grasslands, chaparral and even excessive elevations and wooded areas.
Inside all habitat varieties, roadrunners spend most of their time on the bottom looking for prey akin to lizards, snakes, amphibians, small mammals and birds, and bugs, too, together with scorpions. Roadrunners may even eat carrion, chicken eggs, and are in any other case opportunistic, consuming fruit, seeds, nuts, and different plant gadgets as properly.
Although not a raptor or categorised as a bird-of-prey, roadrunners are fearless predatory birds recognized to prey on venomous snakes akin to rattlesnakes. They accomplish this by attacking the heads of snakes by means of fast and repeated strikes with their sharp and stout beaks.
Fleet-of-foot, roadrunners, just like the cartoon character, are very quick runners. Not often flying, roadrunners are principally seen darting from patches of canopy chasing prey or defending territories from would-be intruders.
With out talons to kill prey, roadrunners subdue bigger prey by gripping our bodies of their beaks and slamming victims towards rocks or the bottom. This technique not solely kills their prey however it additionally makes their meals extra malleable and simpler to swallow.
Higher roadrunners’ closest relations are New World cuckoos and anis. Right here in Minnesota, one such roadrunner-relative is a summer time resident of ours — the black-billed cuckoo. Belonging to the cuckoo household, roadrunners share a number of traits with the opposite relations in each bodily traits and sound.
Roadrunners “coo” like cuckoos do. However not like cuckoos, as already talked about, roadrunners are principally ground-dwelling birds and are weak flyers hardly ever seen airborne. Different vocalizations and sounds embody invoice rattles, putts and even bark-like calls that sound like yipping coyotes.
I hope to sometime observe an actual roadrunner, however I might want to go to the Desert Southwest. Roadrunners are fascinating and distinctive birds which are properly tailored to spending most of their lives on the bottom looking for prey, defending territories, looking for mates, and maybe outrunning coyotes, too, as we get out and benefit from the nice open air.
Blane Klemek is a Minnesota DNR wildlife supervisor. He will be reached at
