After all those years of enjoying the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote Looney Tunes cartoons from Warner Brothers, it’s hard to think of the poor roadrunner as predator rather than prey (roadrunners are both, actually). You expect it to go ‘meep meep,” when actually the roadrunner has a slow and descending dove-like “coo”. It also makes a rapid, vocalized clattering sound with its beak.
Having watched our roadrunners (ours because living on or near our lot) for the past several years, it is clear that they are predators. They lurk near the finch feeders to try and catch an unwary goldfinch eating thistle seeds. We have not actually witnessed them catching a bird but we have seen them lie very still then leap and miss. We have seen them carrying prey in their beaks, probably small reptiles, as they scurry off to consume their catch.
I photographed this bird lurking in the rosemary ground cover near the feeders behind the RV drive in the late afternoon. Click on the image to enlarge.