The riparian woodland where we were hiking is around 6,000 ft. in elevation and I think that may be the upper limits of the elf owls elevation range. Elf owls (Micrathene whitneyi) winter in southern Mexico, then migrate in the spring to southern Arizona, southwest New Mexico and west Texas where they breed and summer over in a few different biotic communities. Lucky us! I like the elf owl description in my old (1960s) Peterson’s Field Guide to the Western Birds: “a tiny small headed earless owl the size of a chunky sparrow.” The photo, however, is a page from…