WINNER: WHITE FACED SCOPS 63-52
White Faced Scops has had a similar time to the Snowy Owl. Lesser known, but widely recognized, it has beaten the large Spectacled Owl, the tiny Saw Whet Owl, and has just edged out another long time favorite, the Burrowing Owl. Whitey has been a bit of a dark horse, stacking up wins while still staying under everyone’s radar as to making it to the final 4 today. All eyes are on him now though.
The Screech Owl is lived by almost all. It has the angry potato charm of the little brown owls, but adds different colors, more heavily patterned plumage, and a pair of adorable plumicorns. It’s the last of the top 4 seeded owls to remain in the tournament. Will the Screechie be able to hold its own today, or will the White Faced take out the last of the original top 4?
Vote now!
White Faced Scops Owl
New Pics
These are my #2 and 3 behind commodore flammules. Go scopie!
I was sad this morning when I saw Flammy’s run was over. They’re all great owls, but that was a pretty meteoric rise for the little dude.
Screech Owl
New Pics
This one’s tough, they’re both so adorable…
They’re both formerly of the same genus before they both got split off into their own genuses, genusi, genus??? so they have a good bit of similarities. I didn’t want to present them as just different due to geography either, as it’s more complex than that, plus I don’t want anyone basing this off country.
It’s another real tough choice overall. Snowy and Buffy have a similar size and body shape, but otherwise way more differences than these 2 do.
I googled it - so much drama in taxonomy! Also learned that screech owls have a courtship duet song, so that seals it for me. #TeamScreech
The breakdown of genus is another article idea I’ve been toying with. I enjoy the history of owl studies and the etymology behind the names.
Do it! I didn’t know much about owls before this & have just been casually googling. A ‘guided tour’ of the history would be amazing.
Ok! I’m planning to kick back a little after this, but I’ll bump it up on my to do list. It teaches me a lot too, so that’s a plus for me.
I’m sticking with my little Zoidberg-lookin friend Scops for now. But Screech really gave Scops a run for its money.
Do you have a bracket system I’m not aware of or is this all just freeform fun?
*oops… saw the bracket
Yup, this weekend should be the end of this. It’s been a tremendous amount of fun, but also a ton of work, so I’m feeling relieved the end is close.
I came up with the original bracket mainly by how familiar i assumed people were with some basic owls, and then grabbed some more from the various genuses I felt people should be aware of. The Fish Owls and Sooty Owls have benefited greatly, as well as the Flammulated Owl and Morepork/Ruru.
With there being over 250 living owl species though, there’s over 200 not in this tournament, so plenty left to come!
It’s been a ton of fun! I’m excited to see how it turns out! Thank you for your passion in arranging all of this. It hasn’t gone unnoticed. It’s fun, it fosters awareness, and it’s something that needs to be shared. Never feel obligated to continue with it if it becomes overwhelming, but you’ve given us quite a wild and educational ride. It’s been a real hoot.
I appreciate it! I’ll keep posting, but I’ll be able to do it on a looser schedule and be able to go back to a pic or 2 instead of a dozen a day. With the holidays coming up, most of us will be doing other things as well, so it’s a nice time to have the tournament wrapped up.
I’ll be doing some year end retrospective stuff too that will help the newer arrivals catch up and remember some highlights for the ones that have been here.
White faced scops all the way. Tough fight, I love the screech, but look at that cute face!
