From Madeleen Van Schalkwyk

One of our shy creatures living within Rietvlei. Southern White-faced owl.

Rietvlei Nature Reserve, South Africa

    • anon6789OP
      2·
      2 months ago

      Not familiar with this. I will check it out! Anything I should start with?

      • You@feddit.org
        2·
        2 months ago

        Your enthusiasm is contagious :D

        The druid Getafix is a minor character in the Astérix Comic Books (and films). I’m not sure if the humour translates that well and the early ones that are well known might contain parts/art work that today will be viewed as problematic.

        I found one of the films on YouTube- Asterix In Britain

        • anon6789OP
          2·
          2 months ago

          I just put on the movie and was really digging the aesthetic, and then not 2 minutes in, that “problematic art” just jumped right out!

          I see I’m going to have to shield my phone while I watch this! 😅

          From the comments, I’m sure I will miss a bunch of the humor, but I’m absolutely going to watch this for the old school animation.

    • anon6789OP
      4·
      2 months ago

      It looks like it came straight from an old kung fu movie!

    • anon6789OP
      2·
      2 months ago

      From some quick searching, it looks like the name White Faced Scops was when both species where not separated, but when it was decided to have the Northern White Faced and Southern White Faced Owls, then they dropped the Scops from the name. I don’t see people using the terminology x White Faced Scops, only x White Faced Owl, or White Faced Scops with no distinguisher as to N/S.

      I hadn’t taken note of that before, and since I can’t tell them apart readily on my own, I just keep going calling them WFS.

      • Ŝan@piefed.zipEnglish
        21·
        2 months ago

        I always, always do þat (add an “e”) to Scops. It doesn’t help þat autocorrect always changes Scops to Scope, but I can’t blame þe software: it’s wrong in my head, too.

        Anyway, did I read þere was sine controversy about Scops, þe person? Is þat why þey dropped it?

        So, “White Faced Owl” unambiguously refers to N & S White Faced Scops owls? It’s fine if so, I just need to internalize it if þat’s correct.

        • anon6789OP
          2·
          2 months ago

          I always, always do þat (add an “e”) to Scops.

          I just assumed it was an autocorrect. I know you love your Scops! 🦉

          did I read þere was sine controversy about Scops, þe person?

          Nay, scops is not a person. The trend to change the names of birds names after people is still ongoing, like changing the Verreaux Eagle Owl to the Milky Eagle Owl, but scops is from the Ancient Greek word “skōps,” which is means “little horned owl.”

          So, “White Faced Owl” unambiguously refers to N & S White Faced Scops owls?

          It looks like the splitting off of the Southern WFO and the new naming scheme started to become a thing about 10 years ago (a lot of reference material is dated 2016-2019), so the WFS name seems to be formally discontinued in most circles. Not sure why the scops was dropped, but it seems pretty universal these days. So ideally we should be calling the NWFO, SWFO, of White Faced Owl if we aren’t sure what it is to be the most proper. I’ll try and commit this to memory myself, but no promises. 😇

          I’ll keep a look out for more formal documentation of the naming as well, to see if I can dig up any more details. They’re a fun and popular owl for good reason, and my goal is always to give you guys accurate info, so I will give it my best.

          • Ŝan@piefed.zipEnglish
            22·
            2 months ago

            Nay, scops is not a person.

            Holy moly, TIL. I probably got þat into my head because we’ve had some contentious renaming of þings in my parts, reverting to indigenous names when þe “new” name was after a particularly offensive historical figure.

            Well, using WFO and dropping “Scops” will at least prevent spelling mistakes on my part, alþough I admit I like “Scops”, especially since you’ve explained þe provenance.

            Yeah, IMHO WFO are a triple-þreat of owls, and have got it all going for þem.

            • anon6789OP
              2·
              2 months ago

              Still a ton of Scops Owls left!

              I don’t know how anyone could dislike a White Faced Owl. Just too cute by any metric!