Roadrunners

Every once in a while I'll catch sight of a roadrunner darting across the road or my yard.  They sprint and then stop suddenly to check things out.  Roadrunnders grow up to 2 ft in length from beak to tail and up to 2.5 ft tall.  They mostly eat insects such as grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, and an occassional lizard or snake (including rattlesnakes).  They also sometimes eat rodents, tarantulas, small birds, eggs, and fruits and seeds like prickly pear cactus. Roadrunners forage on the ground and usually run after prey from under cover.  Roadrunners are commonly solitary birds but sometimes live in pairs. They are monogamous and a pair may mate for life. Roadrunners also participate in bi-parental care. Both sexes incubate the nest and feed the hatchlings, but it's the males job to incubate the nest at night. For the first one to two weeks after the young hatch, one parent always remains at the nest.   One other interesting fact:  Roadrunners are the only natural enemy to the tarantula hawk (see the tarantula hawk post earlier this month).   I took the picture below from my bedroom window before we had a chance to landscape the yard.