The subfamily Neomorphinae, the New World ground cuckoos, includes 11 species of birds,[4] while the genus Geococcyx has just two:[5]

[8] The roadrunner is a large, slender, black-brown and white-streaked ground bird with a distinctive head crest.

[11] During flight, the short, rounded wings reveal a white crescent in the primary feathers.

[12] Roadrunners inhabit the Southwestern United States, to parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, as well as Mexico and Central America.

During the courtship display, the male bows, alternately lifting and dropping his wings and spreading his tail.

He parades in front of the female with his head high and his tail and wings drooped, and may bring an offering of food.

[13] The Hopi and other Pueblo tribes believed roadrunners were medicine birds, capable of warding off evil spirits.

The X-shaped footprints of roadrunners were seen as sacred symbols, believed to confuse evil spirits by concealing the bird's direction of travel.

Stylized roadrunner tracks have been found in the rock art of ancestral Southwestern tribes like the Mogollon cultures.

While some Mexican tribes revered the roadrunner and never killed it, most used its meat as a folk remedy for illness or to boost stamina and strength.

In each episode, the cunning, insidious, and constantly hungry Wile E. Coyote repeatedly attempts to catch and subsequently eat the Road Runner, but is never successful.

In some shorts, the Road Runner makes a noise while sticking his tongue out at Wile E. Coyote, which resembles its actual call.