AnimalsDesert
Roadrunner Fun facts for kids
Geococcyx californianus
The roadrunner lives in deserts in the USA and Mexico and eats lizards, snakes and insects.
- Where it lives
- in deserts in the USA and Mexico
- What it eats
- lizards, snakes and insects
- How big it is
- as tall as a person's knee
Fun facts about the roadrunner
The ones Sammy likes best. She tells them in the game, too.
It has two toes in front and two behind, so its X-shaped footprints don't show which way it went.
On cold mornings it fluffs its back feathers to show black skin and soaks up the sun like a solar panel.
A real roadrunner never says beep beep. It coos softly like a dove and clacks its beak like castanets.
It can jump straight up from the ground to snatch a dragonfly right out of the air.
It hardly ever needs to drink, and it gets rid of extra salt through a special gland near its eyes.
Long ago it raced alongside wagons and horses on dirt roads, and that's how it got the name roadrunner.
It can run about as fast as a grown-up riding a bike really quickly.
Its chicks can leave the nest before they are three weeks old, already running beside their parents.
Riddle
Can a friend guess it?
Read the clues to someone, one at a time, without saying the animal. How many clues do they need? Fewer is better, just like in the game.
I live in hot, dry deserts in America and Mexico, and I'm awake during the day.
On cold mornings, I fluff my back feathers to show black skin and soak up the sun.
My footprints look like the letter X, so nobody can tell which way I went.
I'm a bird that can fly, but I'd much rather dash across the ground after lizards and snakes.
In cartoons, a hungry coyote chases me all the time but never catches me.
Sammy might be thinking of a roadrunner.
In Thought Zoo, Sammy picks an animal and you ask her yes-or-no questions to find it. You'll find the roadrunner in the Desert adventure.
Play the DesertComing to iPad, iPhone and Android on 12 January 2027
