Greater Roadrunner

Don't let the name fool you, this is the only type in Texas. The Lesser Roadrunner is only found in Mexico and Central America.
I spotted one of these driving home the other day, it really caught my eye with it's messy head that looked like a bird with a bad haircut. On my double take the roadrunner obligingly came out of the long grass and gave me a good look. The one I saw was a juvenile, getting close to full grown but not quite there yet.
Roadrunners grow to an adult size of 18-24 inches. About half of their bodies are their tails that are held stiffly angling upward and are wide with white ends on the outer feathers. They resemble super-skinny chickens and are brown with white streaks throughout their upper body. They have long grey pointy beaks and long legs and feet. Their feet are different than other birds; instead of three toes in front and one in back, they have two in front and back. The unkempt look is from a small tuft on the top of their heads. They have a chattering call that sounds like clicking and like a woodpecker pecking.

Roadrunners are very useful birds, they are omnivores and like a nice snack of poisonous bug or snake. They like to eat scorpions, spiders, and rattlesnakes. According to the information I have found they will even team up to kill larger snakes. They will also capture, kill, and eat other birds as they sit at bird feeders.

Meep Meep - good runners they certainly are... up to 20mph sprinting. Understandably they generally prefer to run over flying.