![]() graysoni Ridgway, 1886 – Socorro Island (off west Mexico) (extinct) sanfordi (Ridgway, 1914) – south Baja California (Mexico) idonea ( Ridgway, 1914) – south Texas (USA) to central Mexico ![]() whitneyi ( Cooper, JG, 1861) – southwest USA and northwest Mexico Ī molecular phylogenetic study of the owls published in 2019 found that the elf owl is a sister species to the South American long-whiskered owlet ( Xenoglaux loweryi) that was first described in 1977. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek mikros meaning "small" and the genus name Athene that had been introduced by Friedrich Boie in 1822. The owl is now the only species placed in the genus Micrathene that was introduced in 1866 specifically for the elf owl by American ornithologist Elliott Coues. He coined the binomial name Athene whitneyi, choosing the specific epithet to honour the geologist Josiah Whitney. ![]() The elf owl was formally described in 1861 by the American naturalist James Graham Cooper from a specimen collected near Fort Mohave in Arizona.
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