#Micrathene whitneyi

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Elf Owl

Photo: Greg Lasley

"Regions near the Mexican border are home to this gnome, the tiniest owl in the world, no bigger than a sparrow. On moonlit nights in late spring, its yapping and chuckling calls (surprisingly loud for the size of the bird) echo among the groves of giant cactus and through the lower canyons. The Elf Owl feeds almost entirely on insects and other invertebrates, which become harder to find in cold weather, so it migrates south into Mexico for the winter."

- Audubon Field Guide

[guardians-of-gahoole-fanworld]

A quick sketch of Gylfie, our fierce little elf owl. <3

Hope you like it.

[herpsandbirds]

are there any birds/reptiles with black-footed cat energy? like very tiny but efficient killer vibes

Oh yes definitely, i would say that small owls really have this energy!

Elf Owl (Micrathene whitneyi), family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, found in the SW United States and much of Mexico

This is the smallest owl species in the world, weighing around 40 g (1.4 oz).

photographs by Laura Perez & Rick Bowers

Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia), eat a tasty frog, family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, Florida, USA

photograph by Michael Cenci

[tiny-glued-things]

Finally finished making my saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) for my Sonoran desert diorama.

Saguaro comes with a nesting elf owl, Micrathene whitneyi, and a pollinating lesser long nosed bat, Leptonycteris yerbabuenae.

[antiqueanimals]

Elf Owl (Micrathene whitneyi). Watercolor, William D. Berry, circa 1950.

From Terra: The Member's Magazine of The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Vol 36, No. 2. March/April 1999.

Internet Archive

[blueinkphantom]

Trick or treat!

Hello, have an Elf Owl (micrathene whitneyi), part of the typical owl family (strigidae).

Fun fact: they are the smallest living owl and smaller than the owl called Little Owl :D

[forlorn-crows]

I fucking hate hate anons, so I’m here to spread some love!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOUR WRITING

I don‘t know if you get those stupid hate asks too, but I can totally imagine that it doesn’t feel good at all to be used as a ‘positive example‘ to make someone else feel bad

In case you feel bad (now or in the future), I recommend looking up ‘Micrathene whitneyi’, clicking on pictures and making up stories of what these poor birds had to see

(Stuff like catching their parents have sex fit incredibly well)

~owlish anon

thank you so much @owlishanon !! ive actually never gotten any myself, i think they know to stay clear of me LMAO

and thank you, i shall look those up for entertainment sometime ♡

[ghouletteanon]

I‘m putting this in everybody’s ask box rn but it honestly works so well for me so maybe it does for you too!

If you‘re down (now or anytime in the future), look up ‘Micrathene whitneyi’, click on pictures and make up silly little stories about what these poor birds had to look at!

(Honestly I have no idea if it only works for me because owls are my special interest, but I think it‘s absolutely worth a try!)

~@owlishanon

Hello!

Is this the Owlish? Fellow member of Comet's anon club Owlish? Because if yes, we need like a secret handshake or club member cards or something.

Speaking of owls:

By BBODO - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19810770

Aww, and they're even called elf owls? Poor owls have really seen some stuff. Thank you for your suggestion, it sounds like a fun writing exercise to try out.

My favorite owl is the Asia otus. I like their floofy horns.

By Francesco Veronesi from Italy - Long-eared Owl - Kisjuszallas - Hungary_S4E0920, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39977981

[writing--references]

Elf Owl - Micrathene whitneyi (captive), Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona

[anotherghoul666]

Owlish is here to talk about owls, wohoo!

But also a quick reply to you: Fuck yeah for 4 days without crying, that's awesome! Hopefully it's more already (even though it's obviously okay to cry. Crying can be very helpful. But I just hope there was no need to cry)

Oh Glaux, I know that stuff with habits XD I'm so glad taking my meds is an absolute habit by now cause otherwise I'd never ever remember it haha

Waiting lists for therapy and that shit is AWFUL! (And that even though I'm lucky and in a country with a rather good healthcare system)

I also know that being shut down for excitement or talking ‘too much' and shit. It's awful.

Thank you. I think I'm currently finding a few people. They don't know anything (well they do know what owls are for example, but you know) about my interests but they let me talk and whenever I get scared of talking too much (I usually just stop talking then or I start apologising) they tell me to go on cause they love how they can see the excitement when I talk about that. It's sad that it took me going in a psych ward to find people that are accepting me, but at least I've found them. I wanted to talk about that anyways cause it has something to do with autism, but l'Il do that another time.

Cause now it's time for stuff about owls. (I probably will struggle with correct words sometimes as I'm ESL and I only know quite a few of those words in my first language. But I'll try!

So! First of all: Owls (Strigiformes) are divided into two families. Barn owls (Tytonidae) and the true owls (Strigidae)

I‘m gonna start with the Tytonidae.

Those get divided into two Genus (I really don‘t know the plural of that lmao), Tyto (17 Species) and Phodilius (2 Species. At the moment at least, cause maybe one subspecies is an own species as well which would make 3 species then)

Classic examples for Tytos are the Tyto Alba (Barn Owl. I hate how that‘s the same name as the family) and the Tyto multipunctata (Lesser sooty owl) When hearing the regular English name, one may ask themselves if there‘s a greater sooty owl to which I can respond with yes, there is. It‘s the Tyto tenebricosa.

For Phodilius, there‘s Phodilus badius or Oriental bay owl as an example. It has multiple subspecies, including the Congo bay owl (Phodilus prigoginei) which is said subspecies that might might be its own species. Another example is the Sri Lanka bay owl or Phodilus assimilis, which was considered as subspecies of phodilus badius as well but is now considered to be its own species.

Now onto the Strigidae:

The true owls have way more different Genus, including Bubo, Strix and Asio.

Bubo includes fish owls (those were considered it‘s own Genus (Ketupa) a while ago but now they are all found out to be Bubos), horned owls like the Great horned owl Bubo virginianus, eagle owls like Bubo Bubo (Euriasian eagle owl) [I always find it a little funny when the name of a species is just the name of the genus again] and the snowy owl.

The snowy owl (Bubo scandiaca) was considered to be an own genus as well (Nyctea), simply because they look so different from any other owl, but they turned out to just be Bubos as well.

That was it with the basic facts I think!

Now onto two funny owls:

Athene cunicularia, the burrowing owl.

They are super strange owls for a few reasons. They nest in burrows (which is weird for owls cause they usually nest in trees as many birds do). But it’s only logical as they are found in dry area with low vegetation. Also, they prefer to run over flying when hunting. Therefore, they developed longer legs. While it makes sense, it does sound a little weird when you hear about an owl that lives belowground and runs to hunt.

Also, they always look like they‘re judging you or like they are mad on pictures which is just super cute!

The second one is Micrathene whitneyi or the elf owl which is the world‘s smallest owl! They‘re the size of a sparrow so they‘re really tiny! The sounds that they make sound a bit like chuckles which is super cute!

Also, the name of their Genus (Micrathene) is a combination of the Genue Athene and the word Mikros that means ‘small’, which is super smart and cool to know (at least in my opinion haha, but I find pretty much anything about owls super cool and interesting so I’m biased).

Micrathene whitneyi always looks like it is getting caught or like it caught its parents having sex or something like this. (I‘d always send pics with it but sadly that’s not possible when on anon, but I could send you some per private message if you want that).

Thank you for letting me talk about owls, have a nice day! x3

~owlish anon

Ok I took a bit of time to answer this because I wanted to be at home on my computer with the time to look up all the cool owls and get a visual on all the names, and it was so worth it!! This was a super interesting read Owlish! I did not know 90% or the information you shared besides the names of some of the owls I think I have locally.

It was awesome to check pics of all the names you pointed out, because there were some funky creatures in there I've never seen before! Yo the phodilus owls are so elongated compared to the tytos, it's fascinating to think how thew difference in habitat and region can make a animal's face round or elongated, that's very cool. Both of the sooty owls look like they've seen some Shit XD

The owls with the tufts of feathers that look like ears like the bubos make me want to pet those ears so badddddd. I know the owl probably wouldn't be down for gosh it looks like it would feel like when you pet a cat's ears down but more feathery and springy and my stimming brain says "yes, sensory seek this texture, looks stimmy" xD Bubo ketupa also has seen some shit holy fuck XD

Ooooooh I feel I've seen meme videos if the burrowing owl before but I didn't know which type of owl they were, this is so cool!! Yeah their legs so look completely different from what I imagine an owl's legs looking like in my head. They look like they can kick you in the face if they don't like you hahaha. They are Unimpressed with humans haha.

Oh my god yep you're right the elf owl also looks like he's seen some Shit XD Those pictures are so funny. It's interesting how some owl can look so magestic and calm, like the snow owl or the barn owl or the great horned owl, and some owls look like they're experiencing a very bad hallucinogenic trip and the walls are melting XD It's adorable that it's so smol too, what a smol little potato of a creature.

That was lovely Owlish!! ❤️❤️ Please don't hesitate to come in my inbox to share with me about owls, I love learning like this! I had a great time and I feel I learned a lot!

Take care now ❤️

[themasterandmargaritasitalianice]

elf owls (Micrathene whitneyi)

The smallest true owls weighing on average 1.4 ounces and measuring 5.5 inches long

[triruntu]

#481, an elf owl for @fatedeniedhope.

Requests for birds are open, updates happen on Thursdays. [project tag] | [kofi] [commissions] Find me on: [twitter]

[thecreatureawaits]

The Creature Awaits #77:

Each week I plan to feature an amazing creature, admiring God's fantastic artistry.  Hopefully it’ll brighten someone’s day to see something new and interesting if they haven’t seen it before. : )

(An adorable photograph taken by Beadle B. (CC BY 3.0))

The Elf Owl

Scientific Name: Micrathene whitneyi

Region: The Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico

Size: About 4.9"-5.7" (12.5cm-14.5cm) tall and have a wingspan of only about 10.5" (27cm) from tip to tip, making it among the smallest owls in the world

Interesting Note:  Last week featured one of the world's largest owls - this week's feature is one of the smallest!  This tiny owl is often found nesting in small cavities in oak and sycamore trees or in abandoned holes that woodpeckers carve into Saguaro Cacti.  They nest fairly high from the ground to avoid potential predators, though if captured, they are known to play dead until the danger has passed.

You can learn more about elf owls at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum here.

[hello-birdies]

Micrathene whitneyi by Bob Bales

[tiny-glued-things]

Finished my Sonoran Desert diorama!

Had to make a little key to the species found inside.

1. Opuntia engelmannii (prickly pear) 2. Enneapogon desvauxii (nineawn pappusgrass) 3. Fouquieria splendens (ocotillo) 4. Encelia farinosa (brittlebush) 5. Carnegiea gigantea (saguaro) 6. Eschscholzia californica ssp. mexicana (California poppy) 7. Candelina submexicana (lichen) 8. Acarospora socialis (lichen) 9. Incilius alvarius (Colorado River toad) 10. Leptonycteris yerbabuenae (lesser long nosed bat) 11. Micrathene whitneyi (elf owl)

[dailyowlposters]

Day 2: Gylfie the Elf Owl (Micrathene whitneyi)

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