greater roadrunner

He was stalking the small birds visiting our feeders

In a typical pose with cocked tail, this iconic ground cuckoo of the arid American Southwest paused with crest raised, perhaps on the lookout for small reptiles. The blue and red eye markings are bare skin known as the postorbital apterium. This is primarily blue in females while males also show...

Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus)

Guy came around the backyard to be dive bombed by nesting barn swallows!

Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) Neither foot is on the ground. Leming, Atascosa County, Texas, USA. South Texas Plains Vegetational Area. Open field with surrounding mesquite woodland at ca. 132 m (433 ft) elevation.

The challenge was, keep her at least 23 ft. back, my minimum digiscoping focus distance.. they learn begging quickly in touristy areas of Arizona, and she seemed a little intimidating to me, a stranger to those parts. The desert made a lovely even background.

Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) Sexes similar. Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Cameron County, Texas, USA. Gulf Prairies and Marshes Vegatational Area. Dense Tamaulipan scrub surrounded by either crop land or coastal prairie and marsh at ca. 4 m (13 ft) elevation.

Chase ended with a pose for me.

Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) Sexes similar. Chalk Ridge Falls, along the road to the parking lot. Stillhouse Hollow Lake, Salado, Bell County, Texas, USA. Ash juniper and oak dominated woods above the Lampases River at ca. 192 m (630 ft) elevation.

I have seen literally hundreds of roadrunners driving around these Mexican back roads, and still feel that I have not gotten "That One" image...this one is pretty close. I was sitting on a water hole, way out in the La Paz desert, shooting Xanthus's Hummingbirds when this Roadrunner...

We ran across this Road Runner way out in the middle of some very dry, almost barren desert area. While the Roadrunner is for the most part pretty common here, what made this one so unique, was that he was nearly 30 feet up in the air, on top of that Cordon cactus!

Greater Roadrunner that likes to visit our backyard and get a sip of water every now and then.

Busy at work today. I'll have to catch up on browsing later. Just taking a quick break to post farewell images of three of my lifers from that trip to NM. One more lifer for a first and final post tomorrow, then it's back to Norwegian birds for a while.

He seems to be plotting something over there, but I've already sussed him out ;)

Finally! Proof that I've actually been in New Mexico :D There was one stretch of the tour loop through the Bosque that we on one of that morning tour seminar (the one with the morning cranes and the resting owl) learned to call "Roadrunner Alley". One was reputedly a patient poser, but...

Blimey.. nearly forgot! a very happy 4th of july to all our friends in America!!!!

Juvenile Greater Roadrunner waiting for some good looking functional feathers.

Greater Roadrunner with juvenile waiting for the rest of the family to catch up.

Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) Sexes similar. Photographed at Rio Grande Village, Big Bend National Park, Brewster County, Texas, USA. Disturbed Rio Grande riparian at ca. 571 m (1,872 ft) elevation. May 2014

Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus subsp. conklingi) Four subspecies have been described while some authors treat them all as synonyms of the nominate. Other authors recognize the nominate with subspecies konglingi being synonymized under it. The second subspecies when recognized is...

Hi Folks; Another in my postcard series. Photographed this Roadrunner who came to visit our garden to look around and see what he could find.

Greater Roadrunner

Greater Roadrunner with lizard in front of a barrel cactus.

Molting juvenile Greater Roadrunner in the shade of trees

It has been hot. Average temperatures are setting records here. Today it was 110 deg. Far. As a consequence many birds I'd otherways not see in the yard are paying visits for the water. Such is the case of this bird.