DENVER — A greater roadrunner, somewhat common across southeastern Colorado but very rare farther north, was reportedly spotted in the Denver metro area last week.
After seeing a few rumblings about sightings on the edge of Denver County and Arapahoe County, Denver7 reached out to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to learn more and connected with Jim Gammonley, CPW’s avian program manager.
"There's a reported sighting from last week on Parker Road, which is a bit unusual because it's an urbanized area and not great roadrunner habitat, but roadrunners are pretty adaptable and regularly occur around populated areas throughout its range," he explained.
One of the reports — embedded below — was posted on eBird, one of the world's largest biodiversity-related science projects. The website, which documents bird distribution, habitat use and trends, is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
This bird was apparently spotted on April 15 in the area of Parker Road near Fairmount Cemetery, which is a heavily populated residential area.
While greater roadrunners live on Colorado's southeastern plains, they are extremely rare closer to the Denver metro area, Gammonley explained. The past few months of dry and warm conditions across the west may be leading some roadrunners to explore areas farther north than their typical habitat.
Over the past 15 years, only a small handful of roadrunners have been recorded this far north, Gammonley said:
- Jackson Lake State Park in 2011
- Dinosaur Ridge south of Golden in 2012
- South of Greeley in 2017
The 2017 and 2011 reported sightings are the northernmost records of roadrunners in Colorado, Gammonley said.
All three of those observations, as well as the most recent one, are likely greater roadrunners, which typically call the southwestern United States region home. Their cousins, the lesser roadrunners, are found in Mexico and the South, Gammonley said.
Below is a National Audubon Society map showing the habitat range for the greater roadrunner.
Roadrunners, true to their name, normally walk and run on the ground and can reach speeds beyond 15 mph, but will fly when necessary, according to the National Audubon Society. They tend to stick to open deserts dotted with scrubby foliage.
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