Today, we have a picture of a cute little owl peeking out of a hole in a sycamore tree. The elf owl is a unique bird that lives on the dry bottom of a river in West Texas. At night, it peeps outside. People think that the elf owl is not as important as other types of owls.
This bird is less than 6 inches long and weighs less than 1.5 ounces. So, this owl is kind of like a small golf ball. The elf owl looks like a hunter with a cold heart. When night comes, this bird comes out of its hole to look for food like crickets, beetles, spiders, lizards, and even mice.
These hunters are so cruel that they don’t mind eating bad things like scorpions. After the stingers are taken off, the scorpions are kept in the nest until they are ready to eat. If you go to the forests and cactus deserts of Southwest Texas and Southern Arizona, you might turn into an elf owl. Most of the time, these birds live in woodpecker holes in saguaro cacti in dry areas.
Even though elf owls look pretty quiet, there is no doubt that they are very dangerous. When air moves over the wings of an elf owl, it makes a rushing sound. The female of this species lays one to four eggs in the spring, which hatch in three weeks. At first, only the father elf owl goes out to find food for the mother and chicks. After a while, though, the mother bird also goes out to look for food.
When threatened by predators like great-horned owls, these birds run away instead of fighting. They will even act like they are dead to avoid being eaten.
In October, elf owls leave the United States and go to Mexico, where it is warmer and there are more insects. When spring comes to the southwest of United States, these cute little owls go back to their nests.
