New Mexico’s state bird is the Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus). Officially adopted March 16, 1949, the Roadrunner was adopted under the name “Chaparral Bird”. In Spanish, it is called “El Correcaminos”.
Roadrunners live year-round in many U.S. States including New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and southern California. They are often seen in deserts and like the common cartoon, they are hunted by coyote.
The Roadrunner is large in size, with long legs, a very long, straight tail, and a long neck. The head has a short crest and the bill is also long and curvy. They eat a wide variety of foods, including rodents, reptiles, and insects but really anything they can find in their habitat they may opt to try and eat.
The New Mexico state bird, the Roadrunner, was a bird not known to Audubonin his time, and was therefore not included in the 1840 edition of Birdsof America.
