News for the ‘Arizona Wildlife’ Category

The Arizona Roadrunner

Beep Beep!  Everyone knows this local resident, either from the Saturday morning cartoons, or from seeing him zip across the road as we drive by. Just like in the cartoons, it can’t fly very far, but it can run up to 17 miles per hour.   This ground cuckoo is a fixture all over our state, and many people even believe they’re the state bird.  (They aren’t, it’s the Cactus Wren).

Roadrunners are fast and strong enough to catch and kill rattlesnakes, grabbing them by the tail and cracking their head against the ground like a whip, and they’re quick enough to grab a hummingbird or a dragonfly out of the air.  They typically eat their prey whole, and they sometimes will be seen with a snake dangling out of their beak,  eating it slowly over several days, as it digests.

In the deserts of Arizona, the Roadrunner will often mate twice a year, just prior to our early spring and late summer rainy seasons.  These large, crested birds make nests of twigs and grass in the low branches of trees and bushes.  After the eggs are laid, the male takes over and sits on the nest.   As the eggs begin to hatch, the smaller chicks are often eaten by their parents, until there are only 3 or 4 left.  The babies leave the nest after 18 days or so, and after a couple of weeks they go off into the desert to make their own way in the world.

And it’s a hard world for Roadrunners.  Coyotes really are one of their biggest predators, along with hawks, owls, bull snakes, rat snakes, skunks, and housecats, and in cold weather, many die from exposure.

The Roadrunner is a pretty secretive guy, so when you get a glimpse, be sure to take the time to watch them go about their business!

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Edited: February 1st, 2009

Gambel Quail

This post, I decided to profile of one of our most common neighbors out here in the Superstition Mountains, the Gambel’s Quail. 

These little guys swarm all over the foothills, running in gangs called coveys.

Quail are mostly monogamous, and the male will raise the brood if the female is killed.  The flocks usually consist of up to 20 birds, mostly sisters and children of the original pair.

They have a regular cycle in their reproduction, and some years (mostly wetter years) have much higher populations than others. 

The Gambel’s quail is food for just about every predator out in these deserts, so a good year for the quail is a good year for all the other wildlife.  Coyotes, bobcats, hawks and owls, and even Roadrunners have been seen preying on these little guys.

They seem to prefer running on the ground to flying, but they can fly explosively fast and as high as they need to when they are startled.

Many people put out food for the birds here, but it pays to remember that a birdfeeder is a snake-feeder as well.  If you have a lot of quail, you have a lot of predators.

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Edited: January 20th, 2009