Watching roadrunner in the backyard. Unsuspecting sparrow flies up. Snap. Sparrow dead, spectacle of roadrunner breakfast kinda gross.
Two house finches and a white-winged dove sit on power line, watching roadrunner eat sparrow. Are they, in fact, “watching”? Do they care?
Roadrunner sitting on a stump, wiping off his beak. Can’t see what he did with breakfast.
Roadrunner has left, pile of feathers on the ground where he dined, but can’t see a carcass anywhere.
The finches and the dove were probably more interested in what the predatory roadrunner was going to do next, more than an emotional expression about the death of a compatriot.
I think you’re right, Joel. Three hours, later, they’re still up on the wires, eschewing their normal bird seed feast despite the fact that the roadrunner’s nowhere to be seen.
A couple of years ago, I heard repeated thumping on the roof. I climbed the ladder to see a roadrunner slamming a junco on the roof, occasionally tossing it in the air, as well. The entire process took half an hour. Nothing remained but a very few feathers. I had time to get my camera and take lots of pix. Amazing. (An ornithologist — Dr Dave Mehlman, the Bird Man of Albuquerque — ID’d the junco.)
So do they swallow the whole thing, bones and all?
you missed the part where you got grossed out and stopped watching
My neighborhood is full of cats, and my neighborhood is full of roadrunners, but I’ve never see them at the same time. Do the cats avoid the roadrunners, or do the roadrunners avoid the cats?