A long-legged, ground-loving bird in the cuckoo family that lives in Mesoamerica, especially southwestern Mexico and parts of Central America, with a separate population in the northern Yucatán Peninsula. It’s built for speed on foot: slim body, long tail, and strong legs that make it look like it’s always ready to sprint. It usually prefers running to flying, making quick dashes between bushes and taking off only when it really needs to.

What makes it a “lesser” roadrunner is not that it’s less interesting—it’s that it’s slightly smaller than the better-known greater roadrunner, and it tends to look less heavily streaked with a smaller bill. Like its larger cousin, it has a perky crest and a bold face with a bare patch of skin behind the eye (a classic roadrunner look). It lives in dry, open places with scrub and thorny bushes, and it can be found from lowlands up to high elevations, even in semi-open areas above the treeline on some volcanoes. It can also handle human-altered areas, such as cultivated fields, which helps explain why it still does well in many parts of its range.

The lesser roadrunner eats whatever the land offers. It’s described as an opportunistic feeder, taking large insects (grasshoppers are a big deal), caterpillars, seeds and fruit, and also small animals like reptiles and frogs. It may even forage along roadsides for insects and occasional roadkill—basically a practical, always-alert hunter. Its voice is not a loud song; instead, it gives a soft, dove-like series of “coo” notes that drop in pitch.

Distribution

Country

Population est.

Status

Year

Comments

El Salvador

2019

Guatemala

2019

Honduras

2019

Mexico

2019

Nicaragua

2019