Barn Owl (45) vs Bare Legged Owl (19) Lots of love came in for those fancy legs, but top seed Barn Owl easily walked away with a win here.
Screech Owl (19) vs Crested Owl (17) This one had me nervous due to low turnout for a well loved owl like the Screech, but he pulled it off. The humongous eyebrows of the Crested captured a lot of hearts though.
Long Eared Owl (23) vs Buffy Fish Owl (39) The under performance of my posts of Long Eared Owls continued. Perhaps due to a recent post, relatively obscure Buffy got a solid win. He may be a force to be reckoned with going forward.
Hawk Owl (16) vs Northern Pygmy Owl (43) Everyone left respecting the stern, serious style of the Hawk Owl, but Pygmy melted the most hearts with its tiny cute charms. With a possible matchup against the Little Owl in the future, which little brown puff will prevail?
Barred Owl (27) vs Morepork (28) This was a back and forth battle to the very end, with the pride of New Zealand sneaking a win out from current bad boy of the owl world, the Barred Owl. There’s gotta be some heartbroken Barred Owl fans this week!
Tawny Owl (23) vs Blakiston’s Fish Owl (36) BFO finally got his due in this match. Cuddly Tawny was my pick to win big going into this one. Once everyone got to appreciate the massiveness of the BFO, it picked up a pretty easy win over Europe’s sweetheart.
Barking Owl (28) vs Little Owl (30) I thought the overnight votes were going to push Barking Owl over the top, but it never happened. Very close match all day though. This one was fun to watch, and Australia still has more owls left in the tourney.
Eurasian Eagle Owl (26) vs Sooty Owl (30) Speaking of Owl-stralia, the Sooty came out of nowhere, catching the much favorited Eagle Owl off guard. You guys got enraptured by the dark feathers with sparkles of the Sooty, and the Tytonidae owls are off to a great start over the Strigs.
With many more matches to go yet, what have been the highlights or heartbreaks for you so far?
Have you learned about any owls you didn’t know about before?
Did you surprise yourself picking another owl over one you were sure you’d vote for untilb you saw the competition?
What are your overall feelings about the contest?
Do you have a favorite yet to win the crown?
Let me know below!
We’ve also just picked up our 2000th subscriber, so thank you good stranger! I’m glad we keep growing this community and keep having fun together every day learning about our feathered friends from around the world! Thank you all!
Barn Owl has definitely got momentum. Great Horned is def my top North American owl. I might be a bit negatively biased even though I love GHO. Owls like the Screech and Burrow Owls I feel get more upvotes than GHO posts, and Snowy is always a hit due to memes, Harry Potter, etc.
No matter who gets to the finals though, they’ll definitely have earned it. I don’t feel any bird has a particularly favorable path to victory over any other. I’m really happy with how the seeding worked out to keep things balanced.