Readers of BirdWatching in early 2013 voted Elf Owl the third most-wanted bird in the United States and Canada. Here’s what you need to know to add it to your life list.
Description, range, and population
DESCRIPTION. Less than 6 inches long and about 1.4 ounces in weight. Yellow eyes, white eyebrows, cinnamon facial disc, white spots on wings. (ABA Code 2)
RANGE. Lower Colorado River, from southern Nevada, eastern California, and western Arizona, east to the Rio Grande River in New Mexico; Big Bend region of Texas east to Edwards Plateau and north to the Davis Mountains; Dimmit County, Texas, south through the Rio Grande, to Nuevo León, Mexico; southern region of Baja California; and western Mexico.
POPULATION. Unknown; has been described as “perhaps the most abundant raptor in upland deserts of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.”
Viewing locations
ARIZONA: Mount Lemmon, Catalina State Park, Madera, Miller, Harshaw, and Cave Creek Canyons, Bill Williams River NWR, Saguaro National Park
NEW MEXICO: Gila National Forest, Soledad, Guadalupe, and Clanton Canyons
TEXAS: Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley, Kickapoo Caverns, and Davis Mountains State Parks
Tours
High Lonesome Birdtours: Arizona Owls and Neotropical Specialties, July 13-20, 2013, July 12-19, 2014
Partnership for International Birding: Southeast Arizona Birding Spring Spectacular, April 13-20, 2014
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours: Spring Grand Arizona, May 10-20, 2014
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours co-sponsored by the American Birding Association and Leica Sport Optics: Camp Chiricahua, for birders ages 14-18, August 6-17, 2013, and July 30-August 10, 2014
Tours to watch for
ARIZONA:
Arizona BirdQuest
Arizona Nightbirds and More Field Guides
Arizona: Owls and Warblers Wings
Owling Outings Naturalist Journeys
Owls and Trogons, Arizona Borderland Tours
Southeastern Arizona Bird Treks
Southeast Arizona custom tours Tropical Birding
NEW MEXICO:
Chloride Canyon and Ladder Ranch Wings West Birding
Owling Outings Naturalist Journeys
TEXAS:
Big Bend National Park Bird Treks
The Edwards Plateau and Big Bend Wings
About our poll
We wanted to know, and you told us.
Earlier this year, we published a list of 240 bird species that occur in the United States and Canada and asked readers of BirdWatching magazine to choose the 10 that they wanted to see most.
We derived our list from the authoritative ABA Checklist. We included all rare, casual, and accidental species (ABA Checklist Codes 3, 4, and 5); regularly occurring North American species that are not widespread (Codes 1 and 2); and one species that was once dangerously close to extinction but today is surviving in captivity and struggling to become naturally re-established (Code 6). We omitted most species not native to North America.
Nearly 900 of our readers participated. Their 10 most-wanted birds include three owls, a handful of endangered species, a clown-faced puffin, a blue-footed seabird that is rarely spotted in the United States, and America’s one and only condor.
We presented the 10 most-wanted birds in the August 2013 issue of BirdWatching. Our article included not only the descriptions, population info, and eBird maps above but also 10 things you didn’t know about each species.
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