“Beep beep.” If you’re of a certain age you’ll probably recall the old TV cartoon featuring the Road Runner and his hapless adversary Wile E Coyote. But you might not be aware that it was based on a real bird: the greater roadrunner found in the arid regions of northern Mexico and the US south-west.
While on a business trip to Las Vegas I was keen to catch up with this iconic species, and before we had even got out of the car at the nearby Clark County wetlands park, my son George spotted one lurking by scrubby vegetation on the edge of the car park.
Its jerky movements and staring eyes – along with a long tail, streaky plumage and punky crest – reminded me of the velociraptors in the movie Jurassic Park. Yet roadrunners are actually members of the cuckoo family. Their scientific name Geococcyx means “ground cuckoo”.
Unlike the flightless cartoon character, roadrunners can fly. But they rarely do so, preferring to run at speeds of up to 26mph (42kph) – faster than any other flying bird.
Later on, we had much better views, as we watched a roadrunner tussling with a huge lizard, picking up the unfortunate reptile with its bill and shaking it doggedly back and forth until it finally succumbed. It was a truly memorable encounter with a bird I’ve known about virtually all my life, but had never seen until now.
