Roadrunner Couple Building a Nest And Raising Chicks
Lot's of action in this nest-watch video: nest building, dove attacks, hatchlings emerging, lizard swallowing, chicklet devouring, poop disposal, nestling rejection (it's brutal, you have been warned!), and finally fledging of one surviving nestling.
We built a nesting platform for a roadrunner couple under our patio on Feb. 16, and saw the first egg laid on Feb. 26. Three more eggs followed. The first baby emerged on Mar. 17. Then we got two more hatchlings, but sadly, they were rejected by the parents after some time in the nest. When the last egg hatched on Mar. 28, the parents quickly rejected this small chick as well. So only one of the four roadrunner hatchlings survived and fledged. We think the nesting was too early in the season and there was not enough food to support all four nestlings. The surviving baby roadrunner left the nest on Apr. 11. We hope to see the roadrunner family around our backyard in the months to come. We watched the nest for 55 days. Now we are empty-nesters again :-( but we enjoy being able to use our patio again.
Thank you, for all of us who would never get to see this❤❤❤
Yeah!! I live in northern Canada, so this is a first for me. What lovely birds!
Looks like a good quality Acme Corporation nest
“Good quality” and “Acme Corporation” are contradictions in terms! 😂
Beep beep!
😂 Beep beep!
@@jamesa.rodriguez8598 I don’t think many people know what that means. I used to watch those cartoons as a kid in The 50s and later in the 1980s I watched them with my own kids.
🤣🤣
Wow that's savage, poor chicks.
Dove, go build your own nest 🪹 😂😂 poor dove🤣
Looked like the same species repeatedly came back to that same nest or possibly the same dove as it was checking the nest location several times in the video.
They suck at building their own nest LoL.
Oh no we got a squatter!!!! Lol
Wait you're telling me they don't go MEEP MEEP and poof into a cloud of smoke after running away from coyotes with rockets on their backs?
Squatters are a problem everywhere 😂
Yeah but. They kick them out Really fast. Humans they have to do paper work. And that will take months to kick them out. Specially in New York USA. The system doesn’t work on your favor. 😂 Question why she eat those chicks.
Amazing footage of the pair. I've photographed Roadrunners in Portal, Arizona, and observed other nests in Morongo, California, but have never seen a parent reject one of its own hatchlings. I've shot over 135 species of birds at the nest all over Western North America and Hawaii, and not once have I seen this. Very intriguing as to why they would choose to oust a chick of their own. I do videos at the nest myself, feel free to peruse my channel for BC birds. Cheers, Damon
There are several possible explanations for rejection of chicks. Some rejections may occur due to abrupt changes in weather or food availability. If a chick hatches much later than its siblings, it may be rejected (timing of food availability plays a role). Also, a late-hatching chick may be perceived as ill or unlikely to survive, and may be rejected by the parents. That may have been the case here, where the egg hatched too late and would prolong the breeding cycle, risking reduced food availability or attracting a predator to the nest. Some species developed a reprductive strategy to ensure survival where two chicks are produced. If conditions are favorable and the older chick survives, the younger chick is ignored and starves to death. It's a reproductive adaptation which evolved in certain species, though heart rendering for humans to witness when studying species with this adaptation, especially if that species is already endangered. In any case, chick rejection is always a difficult to situation to witness for those who study wildlife.
@@EyeSeeThruYouYour post is very informative as to the reasons for rejecting the mother might reject the chicks. Btw, it's "rending" not "rendering."
I spent 4 days at Portal now so long ago. Magical place! Bless your calling!
Brood culling is not unusual in the avian world. That it happened here so methodically and quickly (to healthy nestlings, by all appearances!) indicates that it may be in response to ecosystem pressures, as @EyeSeeThruYou pointed out, so it's likely an instinctual behavior. Pre-fledging, the final chick almost resembles a parasitic cuckoo nestling, did anyone else see that? Then I looked it up and learned that roadrunners are part of the cuckoo family, Cuculidae. TIL!
@@EyeSeeThruYou I think all the chicks seemed about the same age and vigor. Especially the second one seemed even slightly more robust. i wonder if the long presence of the unhatched egg was making mom feel like something was off and she didn't identify what it was.
Very good video. Cruel parent, rejected their own chicks. Left one out of four.
Great nesting platform! Wish we had this species here. Poor dove, looking for space, too. Hope she found a nice spot.
so cool! Thanks! I love the part where parent has to figure out: baby small; lizard large. Hmmm.
Gosh. Thanks for sharing this. I miss my roadrunners so prevalent where I use to live in TX.
fascinating how three of the four got rejected by the oldest one is doing just fine. fourth was just really late to the game and probably wouldn't have thrived anyway. But the other two seemed lively. Thank you for your shots of this beautiful species, I'm hoping when I move to Arizona I'll get to see some.
Wonderful capture. Any idea why the parents reject seemingly healthy chicks?
not enough food
@@niflheimder6348 Usually that right there. Not enough food to go around for all five of them. Seen a vid recently of a family of two parents with three juvies in someone's back porch/kitchen area, implying the person might have been feeding them or leaving out food for the parents. But this apparently happens a lot with various carnivorous birds.
No room for 2nd best in this nest!
This is so wonderful! Thank you for making the video🙂
They’re ruthless! Yikes
Absolutely amazing! Thank you.
Had to keep evicting that dove. Squatter!
Thank you! Just an amazing video!!
Great video, well-edited. Roadrunners are a beautiful species. And it's cute, how the nestlings flap their wings so ineffectually.
I don't think it was being ineffectual considering they were auditioning to be the sole chick that gets to live.
@@rhondafarrow6235 Haha, good response
It looked like in some feedings that the chicks or nestlings of other species were being fed to the surviving nestling. There was at least one instance where it seemed plain that there were bird legs sticking out of the nestling's mouth. Mother Nature is a harsh mistress, they seemed determined to get the other chick to survive, by whatever means necessary.
I thought it was one of the rejected siblings!
It was it's own rejected baby. They do thst in times when food is scarce I personally didn't see a shortage of lizards haha. TMI for me.
They fed them whole frogs a few times, maybe that’s what you saw.
these birds tend to consume their food whole
Thanks for sharing the video. It was real informative and a tad harsh. I guess she lays backup eggs in case the first hatchling dies but 😢
Brutal. 4 eggs and every fledgling was removed except for one. Goodness.
Great animal video. Thanks a lot 👍👍🐦🐦
How great! Very special indeed!
Thank you so so much
Love this video - sign Wile E. Coyote.
I had a home office with a French door in a remote cabin and every day a Road Runner with a lizard in its beak came right up to the door and shook the lizard back and forth vigorously as if to impress me. He had to have seen me sitting at my desk. The darndest thing. He often went on the roof peak or in a nearby California Pepper tree and sang a mournful song. There were coyotes around as well...and Bobcats. Poor little Mourning Dove.
Beautiful work by these parents. What a lovely nest. Got to love they are raising a family. How precious.
Not so beautiful work when the parents rejected the other babies
Did we watch the same video?
Gross. She fed 1 baby to another. 🤮
Ya gotta admire that dove😅 He knew a good nest when he saw one. Doves are notorious for building real shabby unstable 🪹. I loved how he continued to coo in the background.
Yep a dove nest...two sticks on a flat surface. Most definitely not the smartest of birds
Tradução
Man o day! Great footage. Crazay two got killed and they fed the kid another baby bird of some kind. 😮Yikes. Interesting they didn't do much regurgitation as i would have thought. 💚💚💚
Zukünftige Vogeleltern,einmalig,wunderbare Natur.
This is incredible!
One of my favorite birds..and we have them run through our yard periodically in AZ...Love all the up close shots of their life we never see. Interesting that they only kept one chick...yikes...
Amazing video 👏👍❤️
No doves allowed!
avian dinosaurs
Omg they are so beautiful ❤😊
At least, there was no fraticide. Usually, nature does not waste that much energy. Somewhere in Roadrunner evolution......? Ornithologists have some idea.
At least they finally got the lining done. Better late than never.
Wow. I didn't know she would reject the babies like that. Interesting. I wonder why they wait and mate in warmer weather so there would be more food.
Yes, they should (and have in years past) start nesting later in the season. BTW, it was the male roadrunner who rejected the nestlings.
@@macplethoraWhy did he reject the babies?
@@lindaadelwerth8042there was not enough food. They fed them to the other chick
Ya, maybe not enough food
He wanted a paternity test……
Imagine if everyone was forced to build their own homes otherwise be homeless. Have to give animals the credit they deserve
Nice video
Adorei coisa mais linda de se ver
Love this video.
What is the best place to setup a nest on your property. My guess is northwest corner of a house
Well, the roadrunners picked the location. Here is the backstory: In 2022 and 2023 we had some temporary shelves on our back patio (facing east) because of construction/renovation. The roadrunner couple discovered the top shelf (about 6.5 feet above ground) and build a nest on it in both years. In 2022 they laid two eggs but abandoned them after a week. In 2023 they never fully completed the nest. Both years they were active in late April. In mid-February 2024 we saw the roadrunner couple check out our patio again, but the shelves were gone - thankfully we completed our construction project and removed the shelves. So I quickly build a nesting platform and installed it in the same location, 7 feet above the ground, along with the camera. It took the birds less than 24 hours to start a nest on the new platform. Apparently they liked the location. We stopped using our patio, and closed the blinds on the window facing the patio/nest. We had a successful nesting/hatching cycle this year. It is surprising how early they started nesting, but it has been warmer than usual here in Southern New Mexico. We think the lack of food early in the season led to the rejection of the three hatchlings.
Hey man you are so lucky to have the luxury of having them roadrunners!!! In your camera's sight. WOW,WOW,WOW. I envy you!!!
Never knew the roadrunners build a nest ! Always thought they will be living in some holes in the ground 😅 Very nice video capturing, thanks for sharing. Is the nest area at the ground level or high up? Didn’t know they can even fly this much And how to identify a male from a female ?
Hi, the nest is 7 feet up. Roadrunners can hop pretty well and glide. We've seen them on our roof and high up in the trees. Our male has a prominent orange/yellow spot behind the white stripe behind the eyes. The female just has the white stripe, and is slightly smaller.
@@macplethora any idea why they rejected the others?
@@user-bq9tw8lt5l Shortage of food supply to sustain three/four hatchlings. Nested and hatched too early in the year.
Does it seem that she dispatched the young because of the nest area? Ive never seen the nest size before. Thank you for the video.
What's up with doves and pigeons ALWAYS trying to usurp EVERY NEST they see? 😆
Amazing sharing, these birds are so awesome, I just subscribed to your channel 🛎️ and Like 👍, have a great days ♻️✅🌳
Burung yang sangat cantik 👍😘👍😘
- That is so sad, I hope you found that baby bird && saved it 😢.
Ad nd what. Go and catch lizards and little chicks to feed it?
I only made it to 6 minutes. Poor little hatchling rejected. 😮 Too brutal for me. Lol
Told that dove what time it is.
L702 support komplit..nice video..
Any reason why the camera is not aimed correctly?
Dinosaurs
Tal cual,son minidinosaurios.Ese sonido es muy inquietante.
Survival of the fitest. The mother got rid of the 2 weaker chicks and just focus feeding the stronger one.
Why the bird rejects its hatchlings
Most bird will kill and or remove smaller/weaker hatchlings to priortize the strongest and healthiest to nurture mature.
Also, it was early in the season, it got cold again, and there was a shortage of food. Most lizards hadn't come out yet.
I’m surprised that the parents didn’t feed that newly-hatched last chick to its much larger sibling!
@@BlahBohogunPlus, that nest didn’t look big enough for more than one hatchling!
@johnhall3570...****ABSOLUTELY NO FOOD TO SPARE !!!!****😊...😳😱😭💔🐣🐤/ 😳😱😭💔 🐣🐤/ 😳😱😭💔🐣🐤**** ...AND... ****ABSOLUTELY NO SPACE TO SPARE EITHER, HERE !!!!****...😳😱😭💔🐣🐤/ 😳😍🤩💔🐣🐤/ 😳🥳🤩💔🐣🐤****
Those sticks don’t look comfortable though 😂
They lined the inside of the nest with pine needles, feathers, and other soft stuff, see the empty nest at the end. They also kept the nest immaculate, no poop at all!
Nice vedio
Chorando igual bebe recém-nascido
Comeu os próprios irmãos
Why did two get rejected?
Good nice full
Curious why the other chick got rejected. It seemed perfectly healthy
Great video . Is the parents that remove the own chicks ? 😢😮
Wenn nicht genug Futter für alle da ist, machen das Störche in Germany auch.
😍😍😍
Why the parents save only the last one. They should lay only one egg
I liked the video very much, thanks you for sharing, stay safe, stay blessed
🥰🥰🥰
Jetzt geht der Stress los,eben wie im Leben wenn man Eltern wird,
😅 🕊 dove squatter issues 😅
Metre une traduction...
Ko anaknya ada yang di buang si ?
I don't understand why one or two of the adults took 2 ot the babies out of the nest and what happened to them?
Fed them to the others.
Why to lay four eggs if the rest are to be rejected 🤔
if there is a good year and a lot of food especially lizards, they can raise more than one baby. so the supply of food determines how many chicks they can raise. also other eggs are insurance if the first eggs don't hatch or chicks die
Well, go and ask the parents yourself 😂
taking a page out of the stork booklet
Itu burung apa namanya
They kill the chicks?
They rejected because they knew they cannot survive or they are ill
Why do they keep killing their own babies? Im so confused by that
Why did she remove her chick?
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, three of you have to go
What bad bird 😮
Got
So bucha
Jajajaja mientras el coyote no está van a hacer su nido 😁
Poin terus saudaraku mantab
Esaa cansera toda pra um filhote? 😂😂😂😂
WowWW......👍👍👍👍👍🫰
Nao gostei nada destis casal di pássaros faz ninho mau feito
Mourning squatter
2 things either the mother is inexperienced or to many mouths to feed.
😱😱😱😱😱😢😢
Why are they killing their own chicks 😮😮😮
👍👍💪🙏❤️
I thought birds would always raise most of the chicks they hatched! Murderer!!
World’s worst bird mom ever! 😢
Very bad birds 🐦
La vidéo est de qualité plus que médiocre , pour un live c'est trop moche