Talk:Roadrunner

Mating call

Personal observation: When the male does his mating call, he starts out with his head raised very high; with each "coo" he lowers his head a bit until the last call is made with his beak touching the ground. If anyone can find a reference to this behavour, I think it would make an interesting addition to the page.

Size

"It is said that some road runners can be up to 3.2 feet tall although most range from 1-2.6 feet tall."

The word "tall" is inappropriate and the numbers are both suspect and unsourced. This sentence should be removed.

Morphology

The size of the roadrunner needs updating, currently reads Template:Convert/Meters to 24 inches (61 cm). Jeh506 (talk) 08:53, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Speed

How fast can they run?

Don't know, but quite fast, that's for sure. Dora Nichov 10:09, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

thats dumb u dont even say the exact speed

Who's dumb!? I just said what I knew, what's wrong with that, you rude... Dora Nichov 11:16, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Merge proposal

There is a lot of overlap in the three articles. I'm not sure if they should be merged into one article or handled another way. Rsduhamel (talk) 16:54, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

After comparing to other articles I think there should be three separate articles. The geococcyx article should be renamed "roadrunner" to be consistent with the naming of similar articles. Also, much of the information in the geococcyx article should be merged with the greater roadrunner article. Rsduhamel (talk) 19:08, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Chasing golf balls

I have heard that the Roadrunner is playful and will chase moving objects such as golf balls, despite knowing they aren't food. However the only source I can find online regarding this was written in the 30's by 'Oren Arnold' in a book titled 'Wild Life in the Southwest (page 90)'! Has anyone ever heard of Roadrunners behaving like this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Asdasd23 (talk • contribs) 11:17, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

Interesting... Enjoyer of World (talk) 11:36, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

Flight ability

How well can these fly? Do they basically just use the wings for jumping like chickens, or can they fly properly but just don' feel like it? 85.157.76.57 (talk) 06:35, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

they can fly well, but like many ground-living birds (pheasants, grouse, etc) tend to walk or run more than smaller birds. I've seen Roadrunner fly up to a nest in a saguero Jimfbleak - talk to me? 11:27, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

Requested move 15 August 2015

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved. The consensus is that the proposed title is the common name for the genus and that, as both species can be referred to as "roadrunners", it also remains the primary topic. Jenks24 (talk) 12:57, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

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Geococcyx → Roadrunner – Currently redirects here and is in the lead, while Geococcyx was not mentioned in the lead until I added it a minute ago. Our pages on the two species use "roadrunner", which is clearly the common name. Srnec (talk) 16:31, 15 August 2015 (UTC) --Relisted. George Ho (talk) 06:24, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

Survey

Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *'''Support''' or *'''Oppose''', then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.

• Oppose move, retarget "roadrunner" There are two species in the genus Geococcyx. The lesser roadrunner only occurs in Spanish speaking countries. The greater roadrunner is the only species occurring in an English speaking country (the southwestern US). There are relatively few incoming links to roadrunner in comparison to Geococcyx and most of the incoming links to "roadrunner" appear to be US contexts where a link to greater roadrunner would get readers to the appropriate article. Is "roadrunner" a common name in English for both Geococcyx species, or just the single species that occurs in an English speaking country? Retarget "roadrunner" to "greater roadrunner". Plantdrew (talk) 06:14, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

• Strong support per WP:FAUNA. Both have "roadrunner" in their common name, so both are called roadrunners. Furthermore, the species are similar-looking enough that it should be no cause for skepticism that they are both called "roadrunners" in common parlance. As one of the many sources on Google Books that refer to Geococcyx velox as a roadrunner says, "The lesser roadrunner (Geococcyx velox) differs only slightly in appearance from its widespread and well-known relative." The greater roadrunner is better known to the English-speaking world because it is in the English-speaking world; for a comparison, eagles that are found outside the English-speaking world are still referred to as eagles (Steller's sea eagles, harpy eagles, Papuan eagles, etc.). — the Man in Question (in question) 23:28, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

Discussion

Any additional comments:

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Cultural Significance

As well as mentioning the medicine and evil spirit ward aspects of the Roadrunner bird in cultures, it seems to me that The Road Runner, arch nemesis of Wile E Coyote, ought to get an honourable mention, at least? "meep-meep"

Indigenous lore

This section is copied mostly verbatim from its source material (Native American Roadrunner Mythology. While I don't believe the plagiarism was ill-intended, the section should be rewritten to bring the entry in line with Wikipedia's core content policies. This is a likely example of close paraphrasing, so I've added the appropriate template to the page in question.

It would appear this section was originally authored by Desertpilot. I would be happy to discuss.

--Michael.j.champlin (talk) 20:45, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

I made an attempt to fix this recently, see if it reads correctly --Cs california (talk) 05:14, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

Feeding - distendable jaw and throat

It's worth noting (with sources about this somehwere) that the greater RR, at least, can expand its mouth and throat like many snakes; it can easily swallow an entire adult sparrow or similar-sized bird whole (and sometimes alive-but-badly-battered). I've actually filmed this myself, but the footage was so bad it turned out useless (think first-generation Motorola Droid, recording from about 30 feet away). I've heard anecdotally that big ones can even swallow an entire blue jay.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  16:47, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

"The roadrunner is a large... bird ... "

Is less than one pound a large bird then? Drsruli (talk) 05:27, 1 September 2024 (UTC)