California Cuckoo - a bird belonging to the Cuckoo family. It lives in desert and semi-desert zones located in the north of Mexico and in the southern part of the USA. It has several names: California running cuckoo, California earthen cuckoo, and in Latin - Geococcyx californianus. If you translate the English name, you get a "road runner." And this is no coincidence: at a time when the main vehicle was carriages and carriages, birds ran after them, catching alarmed animals.
An adult cuckoo-plantain, measured from beak to tail, can reach 60 cm. Due to the mobile lifestyle, the legs and tail are long. The location of the toes is specific: two forward and two back. Thanks to this structure, the bird does not bind in loose soil. Her wings are short, so she can’t rise above 2 meters above the ground.
The tail, which accounts for almost half of the total length, serves as a steering wheel and brake (if necessary). The back, chest, head and crest are decorated in nature in brown tones with white spots. Belly and neck are light. The key is bent down. In general, the California cuckoo looks very interesting. Photos demonstrate all its attractiveness.
The habitat of the bird practically does not change, runs on the selected territory. For this quality, she was attributed to settled birds. She can run at a speed of more than 40 km / h. It flies reluctantly, in extreme cases, it can stay in the air for a short time, measured in seconds. Sounds are made quiet, similar to cooing, and only as needed. Relations with relatives are tolerant, no fights between them were noted.
At night, the bird falls into a kind of "hibernation", because it has parts of the body called dark spots, uncovered by feathers, due to which it reacts sharply to ambient temperature. Waking up with the first sunbeams, she spreads her wings and warms up, returning to a normal state.
The cuckoo plantain feeds on rodents, snakes, insects, lizards, small relatives and snails. The latter eats, cleaning from the sink. She even has enough speed to catch a small viper. She hits her prey with her head on the ground and swallows it whole.
Psyllium cuckoo is a loner by nature. Vapors are formed only during the breeding season. A compact nest is always built together and only on a hill, for example, on a bush or cactus. The female can lay 2 to 9 eggs, it all depends on the amount of food.
It differs from representatives of its family in that it does not throw eggs into other people's nests. Both the female and the male are engaged in incubating them, as well as subsequent feeding. Food is brought to the chicks by that which they themselves feed. The chicks do not linger in the nest for a long time, after a week the babies briskly run around the earth, looking for food.
Psyllium cuckoo easily domesticated. In Mexico, she is tamed so that she cleans the yards of rodents, small snakes, etc. It is noticed that she, like a cat, sometimes plays with her prey, throwing and catching it. Mexicans occasionally use its meat for medicinal purposes.
This is such an unusual bird - a cuckoo-plantain. Amazing creation of nature!
