A Bird That Prefers to Run

Greater Roadrunner, Geococcyx californianus

Spend any amount of time in Texas or the southwestern United States and you’ll undoubtedly spot the Greater Roadrunner, a long-legged, ground-dwelling member of the cuckoo family.  It is regionally called ‘paisano’, meaning constant friend or compatriot.  This large chicken-like bird, with its long tail and shaggy crest, is fully capable of flying, but usually runs instead, at speeds up to 18 miles per hour.  True to its name, a group of these birds is known as a ‘marathon’ or a ‘race’ of roadrunners.   

From a behavioral point of view, the roadrunner is a fascinating subject.  This signature bird of the southwest slows its bodily functions at night, and conserves body heat by lowering its temperature and becoming lethargic.  In the early morning, it can warm itself up without expending a lot of energy.  Turning its back to the sun, it erects its feathers to expose an underlying patch of black skin between its wings that helps it quickly absorb more solar energy.  When running at top speed, it holds its head and tail flat and parallel to the ground.   

Roadrunner warming up in the sun by exposing dark skin

The roadrunner is an opportunistic forager, and while it can catch small birds at feeders and nest boxes, more often it eats a variety of fruits, seeds, as well as venomous prey items, including large insects, spiders, scorpions, and even rattlesnakes.  Surprisingly agile, two birds will frequently cooperate to kill a large snake, taking turns to distract it, pin its head with their heavy bill, and beat it against a rock or the ground.  When alarmed or curious, the roadrunner raises its crest and white-edged tail, and utters a series of coos or rapidly clatters its beak.

Living in dry, open habitats, the roadrunner has adapted by developing salt glands in front of its eyes to excrete excess salt from its blood.  While these glands are more common in ocean-going birds that drink seawater, the roadrunner is able to go without drinking water as long as it eats food with high moisture content, but will drink water if it is available.  When courting, many male roadrunners attract a female with cooing calls and then offer her food, usually in the form of a dead lizard.  If the female accepts, copulation occurs, during which the food is often exchanged.

Roadrunners in love

In a small tree, scrubby bush, or a stand of cactus, both parents build a shallow platform of thorny sticks, line it with leaves, grass, feathers, and occasionally shed snake skins.  Clutch size can vary from two to six eggs, depending on the food supply.  If all the eggs do not hatch at roughly the same time (called asynchronous hatching), and the food supply declines during the breeding season, the parents may eat the younger chicks or feed them to their older siblings.  In times of abundant food, roadrunners will double-brood, or raise a second family just as soon as the first is out of the nest.

Greater Roadrunner populations appear stable across their range, and are seen in central Texas year-round.  However, like most species, they tend to disappear when their habitat is fragmented by development.    

Dabblers and Divers

Wintertime is the perfect time to look for ducks in Central Texas.  Several species that breed far north of our state’s border return to Texas in the colder months to feed in our unfrozen freshwater lakes and rivers.  From the Old English ‘duce’, the word duck is a derivative of the verb meaning to duck or dive, or bend down low as if to get under something.  It best describes the way many ducks feed, by upending or diving under the water in search of a wide variety of food sources, such as small aquatic plants, grasses,  fish, insects, amphibians, worms and mollusks.  Most ducks fall into either the dabbler or diver category.  Dabblers feed on the surface of the water, and sometimes on land, while divers disappear completely beaneath the surface and forage deep underwater.  In general, divers are heavier than dabblers, which gives them the ability to submerge more easily, but they often pay the price by having more difficulty when taking off to fly. 

Northern Shoveler, Anas clypeata

The most distinctive dabbling duck is the Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeada).  True to its name, it possesses a two and a half inch long bill, which is spoon-shaped and has a comb-like structure called a pecten at the edge of its beak.  The pecten is used to filter food from the water and to aid in preening its feathers.  A medium-sized duck, the adult male (or drake) has an iridescent green head, rusty sides, and a white chest.  When flushed from her nest, the adult female (or hen) will often defecate on the eggs, presumably to deter predators from eating them.  This species of duck is monogamous, and stays together longer than any other known pairs of dabbling duck species.  

American Wigeon, Anas americana

Another common dabbler is the American wigeon (Anas americana), whose population is increasing throughout its range.  The male has a white crown, green face patch, large white patches in its wings, and a black rear end bordered by white.  At one time this duck was known as ‘baldpate’ due to the white crown resembling a man’s bald head.   Its feeding behavior is distinctive among the dabbling ducks, as its short bill allows it to be much more efficient at plucking vegetation from both the water and sometimes even agricultural fields.  The diet of this duck has been shown to include a much higher proportion of plant matter than any other dabbler species.

Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis

Among the most abundant and widespread freshwater diving ducks is the Lesser scaup (Aythya affinis).  The male has a slight bump or peak on the back of the head, a bluish bill with a small black tip, grey sides (black on the ends with white in the middle), and a black head, chest, and rear end.   When grasped by a predator like a grey fox, an adult Lesser scaup may play dead, rendering itself immobile with its head extended, eyes open, and wings floded close to its body.  They are capable of diving underwater the day they are hatched, but are too buoyant to stay under for long, until maturity gives them the body composition and strength they need to stay underwater for longer periods of time.

Usually found on smaller, calmer bodies of water like ponds, Ring-necked ducks (Aythya collaris) are more readily identified by the bold white ring around their bill that the subtle purplish band around their necks for which they are named.  A medium-sized diving duck, they also have a small bump or peak on the back of their black heads, with the male having a black chest, back, and rear end, with grey sides and a white stripe up the shoulder.

Gadwall, Anas strepera, is another common duck of Central Texas

The next time you visit a lake, river, or pond this winter, venture out to the quiet corners to see if you can spot one of our best known dabblers or divers! 

The Cunning Coyote

Coyote, Canis latrans

Although the coyote has been (and continues to be) one of the most persecuted mammals in human history, this is largely due to the common misconceptions and myths that surround the species.  Add the fact that they are a highly intelligent animal with keen senses of hearing, sight, and smell, and you can easily see why they are the subject of such scrutiny.

About the size of a small German shepherd, the coyote weighs an average of 25 to 40 pounds, with long, slender legs, a bushy tail with a black tip, and large ears that are held erect.  While its coat can vary, it is usually grey or buff-colored and its snout is long and slender.  A strong swimmer, the coyote characteristically runs with its tail down, instead of horizontally like foxes or up like wolves and dogs.  Primarily nocturnal and very opportunistic, coyotes will eat almost anything, but in Texas they prefer rabbits, rodents, and insects.  Because coyotes can utilize many different food sources and humans have all but exterminated its main predator, the wolf, coyotes have rapidly spread to all parts of the country, including urban and suburban areas.  

Considered monogamous with pairs living together for several years, coyotes are usually shy and elusive, but are frequently seen individually, in pairs, or in small groups, especially when near food.  A family group, more commonly known as a pack, consists of the parents, their pups, and, occasionally, the previous year's pups.  Male and female coyotes pair up, establish a territory, and breed from mid-January to early March.  Normally utilizing a natural cavity or a den dug by another mammal, they will make the necessary renovations by excavating multiple escape tunnels linked to the surface.  After a gestation period of 63 to 65 days, a litter of five to seven pups is born. During the weeks following the birth, the male will bring food to the family, but the female will not allow him inside the den. Coyotes normally may live from 10 to 12 years.

It is easy to get the impression that an area is overflowing with coyotes when one hears a family’s howls.  It reality, there are probably only 2-6 individuals in a pack!  While some people may find it a bit unnerving, coyotes use howling as a means of communication to tell non-family members to stay out of their territory, to locate one another within their territory, to distract other coyotes away from young pups, and as a means for older pups to practice mimicking their parents.

Due to misconceptions and fears about coyotes, many people don't recognize the beneficial aspects that coyotes contribute to our ecosystem. Predators, such as the coyote, serve a valuable function in keeping prey species in balance with their habitat. Populations of small animals, such as rodents and insects, could increase out of control without predators. Coyotes can reduce the number of small animals that homeowners and gardeners consider as pests. While coyotes may change ecological balances of predator and prey species somewhat, they will not eliminate other species from the environment. Many scavenger animals, such as foxes and vultures, benefit from coyote predation on other animals through increased food availability from leftover carcasses.

Coyotes are naturally afraid of people and their presence alone is not a cause for concern, though they can become habituated to rely on human-related sources of food.  Simple steps you can take to peacefully coexist with them include keeping your garbage and recycling inside and secure until the morning of pickup, closing off crawlspaces under porches and decks, feeding your pets indoors, keeping your pets indoors at night (especially cats and small dogs), and educating your neighbors to do the same.

Like all wild animals, coyotes have a right to inhabit our wild places, including the preserves that border our suburban homes.  If you do your part to help strike a proactive balance between humans and these wild creatures and respect their right to exist, you may well be rewarded with a familial chorus of howls on a moonlit night!

Bag Ladies

Bagworm on Crepe Myrtle

While winter is the time of year when we hang man-made ornaments on our trees and shrubs to commemorate the holiday season, it is also the time of year when nature-made ornaments are most apparent in the landscape.  These ornaments are as widely unique as snowflakes, and their appearance varies with the bits and pieces of leaves, twigs, and bark fragments woven into silken bags in a shingle-like fashion.  They reveal themselves on the bare branches and limbs in winter, and they are created by female bagworms.

Bagworm on Anacacho Orchid Tree

Members of the Psychidae family, there are about 1,350 species of bagworms worldwide, also commonly known as bagworm moths or bagmoths. Although different bagworm species vary slightly in habits and life cycle, bagworms spend the winter months in the egg stage sealed within the bags produced by females the previous fall.  

In late May to early June, very tiny caterpillars hatch, produce a silken strand by which the wind can carry them to new foliage (called 'ballooning'), and construct a tiny conical bag carried upright with them as they move.  During leaf-feeding, the caterpillars emerge from the top of the bag and hang onto the host plant with their legs, sometimes aided with a silken thread. The bottom of the bag remains open to allow fecal material (called ‘frass’) to pass out of the bag. 



By August or September, fully grown caterpillars have developed larger bags, and pupate within them.  Seven to 10 days later, the pupae of the male moths work their way out of the bottom of the bag, and emerge from their pupal skin.  These males have half-inch long clear wings, feathery antennae, hairy black bodies, and they spend their time seeking out a female to mate.  Females, on the other hand, are immobile and stay in the larval stage, do not develop into moths, and remain inside the bags. After mating, the females produce a clutch of 500 to 1000 eggs inside their bodies and then die.    



Bagworm on Juniper

Bags vary in size, up to 2 inches long and about a half inch wide, and are spindle-shaped.  They can be quite ornamental, covered in a somewhat patterned array of bits and pieces of plant matter.  A wide range of broadleaf and evergreen trees and shrubs serve as hosts for bagworm species, including juniper, cedar elm, bald cypress, live oak, persimmon, sumac, sycamore, willow, yaupon, and native fruit and nut trees.  

Since these bags are composed of silk and plant materials, they are naturally camouflaged from predators such as birds and other insects.  While birds can eat the egg-laden bodies of female bagworms after they have died, the eggs are very hard-shelled and can pass through the bird's digestive system unharmed.  This represents yet another way to disperse bagworm species over a wide-ranging area, and helps in creating a whole new generation of bag ladies!

Clever Corvids

Common Raven, Corvus corax

Crows, ravens, and jays are members of the Corvidae family, or corvids for short.  Medium to large perching birds with strong bills and feet, and feathers that are predominately black or blue, they are bold, curious creatures, and are found in a wide range of habitats.  

Corvids are known for their high degree of intelligence in the bird world, especially crows and ravens.  Crows have performed as well as monkeys in psychological tests, and most employ intelligence in their daily routines, such as dropping nuts onto hard surfaces (like roads) to crack them.  Ravens can recognize groups of different sizes up to seven, and often show problem-solving insight when posed with an intriguing new task.  

Corvids are very social birds, with most living in extended family groups year-round.  Groups give the birds an ability to guard one another, and those posing as sentries can warn other birds and wildlife when predators such as hawks and owls are near, sometimes mobbing them and chasing them away.  While corvids are noisy birds with loud, often screeching calls, they are also excellent mimics of other birds, and those in captivity have been shown to mimic even human speech. During the winter, when food can be scarce and the weather harsh, corvids aggregate in large groups at abundant food sources and roost together to stay warm at night.  

American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos

Found primarily east of the Balcones Escarpment in our area, the American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) is an all black, thick-necked bird with a straight, heavy bill and a short tail that is squared off or rounded at the end.  Their loud cawing gives them away, and many times you will hear them before you see them.  Highly adaptable, they will live in any open space that offers trees for perching and a reliable source of food.  The Common Raven (Corvus corax) is a very similar-looking all black bird, larger but more slender, and with a wedge-shaped tail.  It is found mainly in the Edwards Plateau west of the escarpment and in far West Texas.  An acrobatic flier, one adult was observed flying upside-down for more than a half-mile, and young birds are often seen dropping sticks and diving to catch them in mid-air.  

Western Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma californica

Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata

While there are two species of jays in our area, they overlap only slightly in range.  The Western-Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica) prefers the juniper-oak woodlands of the Texas Hill Country while the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) inhabits the prairies and grasslands in the eastern part of town.  Gorgeous azure blue above with a slate gray back and light gray breast, Western Scrub-Jays lack the head crest and black barring with white patches on the wings that distinguish them from the Blue Jays.  Both species of jays have a mischievous streak, stealing other birds’ cached food and chasing off smaller birds to steal sunflower seeds and peanuts at feeders.   

Green Jay, Cyanocorax ymcas, this common resident of deep south Texas hasn't made it to Austin - yet.

In the wild, corvids are long-lived birds, often reaching over 15 years of age.  During their lives they clearly learn to act intelligently, and we have yet to determine how intelligence might be distinguished from instinct.  But the more we observe and record their behaviors, the more we can appreciate and enjoy these clever corvids!     

Dispelling Common Myths of the Ashe Juniper

Ashe Juniper, Juniperus ashei

The Ashe Juniper (Juniperus ashei), more commonly but incorrectly known as the ‘cedar’ tree, is not the bane of nature many people have come to believe.  It is as much a part of the Texas Hill Country as wildflowers and limestone.  The juniper tree can germinate on bare rock, quickly develop a thick canopy to protect the earth beneath it, and drop an enormous amount of leaf litter that can build soil and capture and hold water.  Let’s explore some of the more common myths surrounding this tree, and in the process begin to appreciate its purpose, beauty, and wildness.

Pollen produced on 'male' trees

Berries produced on 'female' trees

Shaggy bark of the Ashe Juniper

Myth #1:  The ‘cedar’ tree is not a native tree.  While you have probably heard some of the tall tales about how junipers may have arrived in Central Texas, the undisputable proof that they are native lies in fossilized juniper pollen found in our area, dating back to the last Ice Age. Additionally, in historical records dating back to the late 1600s and early 1700s, junipers are accurately described by Spanish trailblazers, missionaries, and other early settlers and explorers alike.  While native to our area, Ashe Junipers are invasive.  Naturally occurring on steep, west-facing slopes, they have spread to cover most of our terrain due to our tendency to suppress the normal wildfires that kept them within their typical boundaries.

Myth #2: The ‘cedar’ tree is a water hog.  Scientific stemflow studies have shown that the juniper does not take in much more water than any other native woody plant its’ size.  Junipers are extremely drought tolerant, and their dense canopy breaks the impact of falling rain.  This allows a thick organic litter to accumulate under the juniper, which slows down erosion and provides flash flood control. When slopes are clear-cut of juniper and native grasses cannot establish themselves, we not only lose our soil, but we may also be losing water. Eroded soil can fill the recharge cracks and limestone karsts with silt, which ultimately decreases the amount of water that percolates into the aquifer.

Golden-cheeked Warbler, Setophaga chrysoparia

Myth #3: The ‘cedar’ tree is a useless tree.  One of our endangered species, the Golden-cheeked Warbler, uses the soft bark strips of old-growth Ashe Junipers to build its nest.  Many other species of wildlife use juniper thickets as escape cover and shelter, and in the winter, its berries feed several species of birds and mammals.  Butterfly larvae, such as the Great Purple Hairstreak (Atlides halesus) and Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus), as well as the Tortricid or Leafroller Moths, all consume the foliage.  And from a human point of view, oils provided by the juniper are used to scent perfumes and soaps, and the wood itself has been used for fuel, furniture, tools, fence posts, and just about everything in between.     

Juniper Hairstreak, Callophrys gryneus

Myth #4: Cutting down all the ‘cedar’ trees in my yard will protect me from ‘cedar fever.’ December through March is the height of ‘cedar fever’ season.  This is the time of year that juniper trees (males only, the females produce the berries) produce copious amounts of pollen, up to several pounds per tree.  Once this pollen becomes airborne, it travels hundreds of miles to reach every allergy sufferer.  Let’s face it – ‘cedar fever’ is simply a natural part of living in Austin.

In short, the Ashe Juniper helps us to define what we call ‘a sense of place.’  Combined with the wild and tumbled terrain created by our ubiquitous limestone, the character of the juniper’s twisted limbs and the smell of its foliage in the deep summer heat define the essence of the Texas Hill Country.

Jolly Holly

Possumhaw, Ilex decidua

One of the brightest colors in the winter landscape belongs to the red berries of our native species of hollies.  While approximately 600 species exists worldwide in the genus Ilex, in our area we have Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) and Possumhaw (Ilex decidua).  The first is naturally found in both dry and wet habitats, while the second thrives in generally moist woods.  Each, however, has their own unique characteristics, and they are hinted at in their scientific names.

Yaupon Holly, Ilex vomitoria

Yaupon Holly is a large evergreen shrub or small tree with small, shiny alternate leaves that have rounded toothed edges.  Little white flowers appear in April and May, followed by quarter-inch bright red fruits in fall and winter.  The species name 'vomitoria' means exactly what it sounds like, as early Europeans witnessed Native Americans consuming large amounts of a 'black drink' to induce vomiting as part of a purification ritual.  Steeped from toasted leaves and bark of this plant, this tea-like drink contained large amounts of the stimulants caffeine and theobromine, and is related to yerba mate, which is a traditional and still popular South American drink brewed from a different but related holly species.

Possumhaw, Ilex decidua

Possumhaw is also a large shrub or small tree with simple alternate leaves that are round at the tip and tapered at the base, but as suggested by its species name 'decidua', it is deciduous and loses its leaves in the winter.  That's when Possumhaw shines, however, spending most of the winter season with its’ bare branches adorned by bright red-orange berries.  Sometimes referred to as Winterberry, Deciduous Holly, or Swamp Holly, it is the larval food plant for the Dusky-blue Groundstreak butterfly.      



Grouping both of these hollies in your landscape with Carolina Buckthorn, Mexican Buckeye, Texas Redbud, and Spicebush creates a colorful and natural understory for an attractive woodland garden. Hollies are dioecious, meaning each plant is either male or female. The male plant provides the pollen, which is carried by bees up to a half-mile to a female plant, and used to pollinate it.  The berries on the female plant, while slightly toxic to humans, provide an important winter food source for small mammals and many different bird species, such as American robins, cedar waxwings, and northern mockingbirds.

Hollies have long been associated with the holiday season, with the roots of this tradition beginning in Europe and eventually brought to the New World. Over hundreds of years ago, druids considered holly to be a sacred plant, and associated it with the Roman God Saturn and the celebration of the winter solstice.  Plant some of our native hollies in your yard, and both you and the wildlife will enjoy a jolly holly season!