D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February 2010
That Bird with Charisma
Real-life Roadrunners have just as much appeal as the cartoon critters chased by Wile E. Coyote.
Story and photos by Jay W. Sharp
The Roadrunner has what the early Spanish colonists might have called "duende," or what the later, English-speaking settlers might have called "charisma." It took such a hold on the pioneers' imagination that it found a prominent place in the folklore of our region. In fact, it came to serve as the emblem of the Texas Folklore Society as well as the state bird of New Mexico.
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Roadrunner in a Honey
Mesquite tree. |
In Alfred Henry Lewis' Wolfville, for one example of the tales it evokes, the Old Cattleman says, "What he'ps to open my eyes a lot on birds is two Road Runners Doc Peets an' me meets up with one afternoon comin' down from Lordsburg. These yere Road Runners is a lanky kind of prop'sition, jest a shade off from spring chickens for size."
The Roadrunners come upon a rattlesnake sleeping on the desert floor, and, says the Old Cattleman, "They builds a corral of cactus all about him, which the same is mebby six-foot across" The birds, "without a word of warnin', opens up a war-jig The epithets they heaps on that pore ignorant rattlesnake, the taunts they flings at him, would have done Apaches proud."
Awakened, the rattler "buzzes and quiles up, and onsheaths his fangs." But, frustrated by his cactus imprisonment and the birds' taunts, "the rattlesnake suddenly crooks his neck, he's so plumb locoed with rage an' fear, an' socks his fangs into hims'f. That's the fact; bites himself and never lets up till he's dead. It's cl'ar the Road Runners regards the deal as closed. They sa'nters off down to the trail."
Today this "lanky kind of prop'sition" ranges from the Southwest states eastward to Texas' Loblolly Pine forests and beyond and southward into Mexico's Central Highlands. The Roadrunner expanded its range eastward and northward throughout the 20th century, according to authority Janice M. Hughes, writing for Birds of North America Online. It may have felt welcomed by the new shrub cover, such as the Honey Mesquite, which asserted dominance in many areas as ranchers overgrazed pastures and farmers cleared and then wore out tillable soils. Expanding from the Southwest, says Hughes, the birds have established populations as far east as the Mississippi and Missouri River Basins and as far north as northern California and northern Utah.
Distinctive Features
Measuring roughly two feet from the tip of its bill to the tip of its tail, the Roadrunner belongs to the Cuckoo family — birds that typically have slender bodies, long tails, sturdy downward-curving bills, pointed wings and an overall dull grayish-brown plumage. Weighing half a pound to a pound and a half, the Roadrunner has a much sleeker body than a chicken, even a spring chicken.
Overall, the Roadrunner — male or female — has a brown to bluish-black head, neck and back decorated with white streaks and spots; a grayish- to buff-colored belly characterized by a mottled texture; and metallic-colored tail feathers trimmed with white margins and tips. Its head bears a shaggy bluish-black crest, which the bird can raise and lower at its whim. Its bill — sturdy, dark and downward curving — signals its relationship to the Cuckoo family. The mature Roadrunner's face — with a bluish and white streak, sometimes with a touch of red, behind each eye — suggests the mask of a comic-book superhero.
The Roadrunner has relatively long grayish legs, built for speed across the ground — up to 17 or 18 miles per hour, according to several sources. It has feet with two long toes pointed forward and two long ones pointed backward, an arrangement that facilitates grasping and climbing and which leaves a distinctive X-shaped track. The track appears occasionally in the early second millennium Puebloan rock art of southern New Mexico and northern Chihuahua, an image pecked or scribed on stone, possibly as the symbol of a clan or as a shaman's entryway to the spirit world.
The bird can run at its top speed "over considerable distances," usually following open roadways, paths or streambeds, according to Hughes. When running, it extends its neck and head and flattens its tail, using the long feathers as a rudder for negotiating sharp, high speed turns. Typically, it flies only short distances, no more than a few yards, and it often glides on extended wings from higher to lower elevations. When it stops, the Audubon Society says in its Master Guide to Birding, the Roadrunner appears to "swell suddenly in size as it opens its wings slightly and erects its tail, crest, and body feathers." Overall, the bird ranges widely in its ground patrols, covering a territory of several hundred acres.
By Any Other Name
The Roadrunner has garnered a long list of other common names. For instance, according to famed regional writer J. Frank Dobie in his essay, "The Roadrunner in Fact and Folklore," it may be called Chaparral, Chaparral Cock, Chaparral Bird, Cock of the Desert, Medicine Bird, War Bird, Lizard Bird and Snake Eater. In its Southwest and Mexican ranges, it may also be commonly called the Paisano, the Spanish word for compatriot or countryman.
According to one Dobie informant — an old ranchero in the Mexican state of Chihuahua — the Paisano sometimes made itself a welcome family pet at farm and ranch homes, where the bird chased down rats and mice, helping control the populations of those rodents.