My wife’s work computer desktop background changed itself today, and she called me in to see it. I said, “that’s a Saw Whet.” Not believing me, she looked up the credits and said, “get out! It is!”
I owe it all to !superbowl. I couldn’t have identified even a Snowy before this community.
Thanks, anon6789.
In 2023, Elf beat Powerful, but then lost to Burrowing. Saw Whet beat Ural, but lost to White Faced Scops.
In 2024, Elf lost to Long Ear, while Saw Whet beat Barred, Buffy, Great Horned, and White Faced Scops in a very impressive road to victory.
Thank you. So there’s never been a Saw Whet v Elf head-to-head. I look eagerly forward to 2025’s match up; maybe it’ll happen then.
I’ve noticed, and perhaps it’s just my bias, that the heavyweights seem to be either the tiny owls, possessing maximum cuteness, and the giants. The medium sized owls seem to be at a disadvantage and don’t progress very far.
At the risk of creating a lot more work for you, maybe we need weight classes: light, middle, and heavy. Then we could have three winners. If necessary, a final round to determine the overall OOTY. But it’d be interesting and perhaps more fair to compete on level playing fields: big, powerful, apex predators competing against their own; small, cute, still apex in their niche, but competing without the “adorable” advantage.
Surely there must be enough species. I know there are, what, 4 or 5 different Scopes - there are Northern and Southern WFS, right? In the middle class are the bar Barn, Snowy, Barred, and so on. In the heavy are the GHO, Eagle, and others.
Don’t mind me; I’m just exploring the idea. It all sounds like a vast amount of effort, and maybe the aren’t enough owls to have weight classes.
Some of the middleweights are ignored to my dismay like the Long Eared and Tawny, though I think that might be due to the demographics of Lemmy. Some do shine through, like the Morepork and Spectacled, and I’ve been trying to build up love for the Wood owls.
The things I enjoy about Owl of the Year is seeing how you guys rank them. One of the first big breakouts was the Flammulated Owl that nobody really knew about, and it knocked out the Great Horned, which I thought would be a sure thing. And last year, Elf Owl didn’t win its round, but people were really won over by it because while huge owls are eating mice, the smallest of all owls is out there living in a thorny cactus and popping off scorpion stingers and downing them like shrimp cocktail. That little guy is at least as tough as the biggest of owls, and some of you really got fired up about it.
There are a few more Scops than a half dozen! The Scops alone have a few Genus groups, mainly the Old and New World Scops.
Otus, the bulk of non-American Scops has 54 species, and Megascops, the American Scops, has 27 species. There are some more like Psiloscops, which is just the Flammulated Owl, and Ptiloscops, the White Faced Owls, which are now split into Northern and Southern species instead of just one.
Pygmy Owls and Boobook Owls are also large groups with both having 37 species each. I don’t get into all of them, because other than me just saying this one looks exactly the same as the other 36, but it lives on this remote island instead of that one and they have a slightly different vocalization and diet. 😁 I know to me that stuff is interesting, but I think you all as a whole are more entertained by other things unless I find something extra unique to mention. Most of these remote owls we don’t know much about other than that they exist.
I try to balance giving you everything vs the things you’ll actually be interested in. If there’s ever anything you want to see more of, just let me know!