Greater roadrunner of New Mexico. Greater roadrunner The greater roadrunner ("Geococcyx californianus") is a long-legged bird in the cuckoo family, Cuculidae, from Southwestern United States and Mexico. The Latin name means "Californian earth-cuckoo". Along with the lesser roadrunner, it is one of two species in the roadrunner genus "Geococcyx". This roadrunner is also known as the chaparral cock, ground cuckoo, and snake killer. The roadrunner is about long, has a wingspan and weighs . It stands around tall and is the largest cuckoo of the Americas. Roadrunners have four toes on each zygodactyl foot; two face forward, and two face backward. The
Scaled ground cuckoo head, greenish-brown crest and a curved beak. The upper parts are dark brown, the tail blackish and the underparts pale tan. It has been claimed that it easily can be separated from the rufous-vented ground cuckoo by the lack of a dark chest band, but the variation in this feature in Amazonian rufous-vented ground cuckoos makes the features questionable. As a consequence, recent authorities commonly treat the scaled ground cuckoo as a subspecies of the rufous-vented ground cuckoo. The scaled ground cuckoo is a shy, secretive bird and is seldom seen. Its call is not known, but like other ground