The “beep, beep” of the Warner Brothers’ cartoon Roadrunner is probably very familiar to you. Despite the cartoon character’s victories over Wile E. Coyote, real-life coyotes do present a real danger to roadrunners as they can reach a top speed of 43 miles an hour—more than twice as fast as roadrunners.

Roadrunners eat poisonous prey, including venomous lizards and scorpions, with no ill effect. They can also kill and eat rattlesnakes, often working with another roadrunner. One distracts the snake by jumping and flapping, while the other sneaks up and pins its head, and bashes it against a rock. If it’s is too long to swallow all at once, a roadrunner will walk around with a length of snake still protruding from its bill, swallowing it a little at a time as the snake digests.

Roadrunners hold a special place in Native American legends and belief systems.  The roadrunner’s distinctive X-shaped footprint—with two toes pointing forward and two backward—are used as sacred symbols by Pueblo tribes to ward off evil. The X shape disguises the direction the bird is heading, and is thought to prevent evil spirits from following.

When threatened or displaying to a rival, they erect their crest and reveal a bright orange patch of skin behind the eye. Both birds in a pair patrol their territory—which can measure up to a half-mile in diameter.  Roadrunner pairs form lifelong bonds that they renew each spring with a series of elaborate courtship steps and calls.

Greater Roadrunners are large cuckoos with a distinctive shape: long legs, a very long, straight tail, and a long neck. The head has a short crest and the bill is long, heavy, and slightly down curved.

Text adapted from allaboutbirds.org