Roadrunner & Rocks (1 Viewer)

I have a roadrunner couple that has a territory around my house and down my lane.. I live in the country. One of the roadrunners will bring a small rock up to the house window.. leave it on the ledge and when it feels like it taps on my window the rock. I caught it one day doing it. I came house today and I find three small rocks lined up on my step.. I have a glass door.. I assume that the roadrunner is tapping on the glass because it sees it's reflection.. what do you think.. is this behavior used in the wild?

Ya know, I did a bit of research on the Roadrunner and could find nothing about the use of small rocks for anything. Tapping on the window as it sees its reflection is very possible as quite a few birds do this but I sure would like to find out about their pension for the rock collection you describe. I even checked out what their nests look like and it sure doesn't contain any rocks. Lucky you to be able to observe these guys so regularly.

Fascinating observation! This is as close as BNA-online gets to saying anything on the subject--

"Greater Roadrunners are monogamous, maintain a long-term pair bond, and mutually defend a large, multipurpose territory. Each spring and summer, they renew their pair bond through a series of elaborate courtship displays in which the male bows and prances, wags his tail, and offers nesting material and food items to his attending mate".

Thanks for responding.. I kicked the rocks off the step.. there were three in a row.. next time I will take a photo and share it.. could be a mate ritual.. so interesting!
Thank you!!

carleem said:

Thanks for responding.. I kicked the rocks off the step.. there were three in a row.. next time I will take a photo and share it.. could be a mate ritual.. so interesting!

Click to expand...

Yeah, very interesting. Keep us abreast of developments. . ..