Owl of the Year Match 15 - Flammulated Owl vs Great Horned Owl

WINNER BY DECISION: FLAMMULATED OWL 55-55 (I saw that one downvote!) For Flammy to hold out for 24 hours against GHO I feel is the greater challenge, and the last 4 votes had 3 go to Flammy.

We’ve finally made it to the end of the first round, and we’ve got 2 great matches today!

Flammulated Owl is here as the only member of the Psiloscops genus. It is a migratory owl that lives from British Columbia to New Mexico and migrates to southern Mexico to Guatemala for the winters. It had longer wings for its size than most owls. Overall size wise, it is larger than the Elf Owl, and about the size of the Pygmy Owl. While it resembles a Screech Owl in appearance, it is only about a quarter of the mass of the Screech and has shorter ear tufts. Unlike most owls, these can be found living in groups. They prefer more open pine forests where they hunt for nocturnal flying insects.

The Great Horned Owl is an iconic bird that checks ask the boxes for a legendary animal. It’s big. It has a strong and powerful voice. It can be stronger than a bald eagle. It can take out skunks, porcupines, and turkey with ease. It is an apex predator of near all of the Americas. The Barn Owl and Short Eared Owl can fly further, which is the only thing keeping GHO from being the most widespread American owl, as the GHO can’t make it off the mainland. This owl is a fan favorite to go all the way in this tournament.

Can the little Flammulated Owl slow down the Tiger of the Sky? Upvote your favorite below!

Napain,

before you choose the flammulated owl is only like 15cm (6inches) tall

Blubton,

This may be the closest one so far! Great matchup and great tournament!

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I think you’re right. I admit to being unenthused putting up this post because I thought it would be a sweep for GHO, but you guys are proving me wrong!

I love Flammy, but at the same time I won’t know how to feel if GHO loses round 1 to a relative unknown.

Blubton,

I wasn’t expecting this either! But we have already seen some surprises this tournament, with the early elimination of the Eurasian Eagle Owl (that one still hurts me) for example. Maybe people are more likely to vote for the underdog in this tournament?

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

That one, and Morepork beating Barred Owl were huge wins out of nowhere. My only complaint is you guys not voting out all these little round brown owls! I don’t dislike them of course, but you seen one, you’ve seen them all to me.

Saw Whet vs White Faced Scops is going to be the hottest race of round 2 I think. I won’t say hoo I’m rooting for, but that one would sting a bit if they lose.

chumbalumber,

once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them owl ;)

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

Talk about missed opportunity! Good job! 😉

casmael,

Flammulated owl should take it if only for the interesting name imo

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

The name is what first caught my attention looking through the list of owls.

Gotta work it into my daily vocab!

littlebluespark,
@littlebluespark@lemmy.world avatar

The Great Horned Owl is always watching, but the Flammulated peers into the depths of your soulllll… 😶

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I still expect GHO to pull off the win, this would be a huuuuuge upset if it didn’t, but it’s exciting to see Flammy in the lead at least for a few hours!

Mbourgon,

Can we do a loser’s elimination bracket? So many superb owls.

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I have been thinking about what to do with the numbers I get from this.

I think the tourney has still been impacted by higher and lower traffic days, like the low number of votes the Screech got in its first match.

There also seem to be many new names in the comments, so I don’t know if we’re picking up all new people from other communities from All or if we’re getting the lurkers to be more vocal. If it’s new people, they’re going to be less familiar with some of these owls than the people who have been here the last 6 months of my posts.

So far my main idea is to total the whole number of votes at the end to give an overall general popularity score regardless of who actually wins.

I was also going to pick a few honorable mentions for more obscure owls that do better than I had expected. Sooty and Buffy Fish for example I didn’t expect to clear their first matches.

There are also over 200 owl species that didn’t make the tourney this year. I’ll probably cut the bottom 10 or so contestants to make room for new owls next year, so if there’s anyone you felt was left out this year, give them a shout out or just keep them in mind throughout the year and tell me I better add them or else!

The bracket is a good amount of work, and honestly I secretly hope some owls don’t move on because some of these rare ones are hard to source b that many good photos of. There are so great owls where there’s only like 100 of them risk in the world, but guess many different pics can I possibly get of them? 😅 I’m having tons of fun with this and love seeing you guys enjoy it, but it’s a lot of prep every day, especially now that I’m not work from home anymore, so I’m going to be relieved when it’s over! I absolutely DO want to do it again next year though!

But all of you feel free to let me know your thoughts if there’s anything you’d like to see at the end of this or for next year.

Was this a good number of contestants or too many?

Do you want more common owls or did you like the mix this year? I tried to get every genus, but that was still too many, but I tried to get a fair number for you guys in Europe and AU/NZ and not make it too US biased.

The Picasso post kinda had me wanting to copy some of his owl art and put it on here as merch, but that also sounds like a lot of work. My brother has also been selling shirts for his private social club (coincidentally the Owls Club) and I helped him come up with potential future shirt designs for them and toyed around with c/Superbowl shirts, but all the grief and frustration with sizing and minimum order he’s dealing with do it locally is not encouraging to me doing it intentionally, and I don’t want to do things that don’t benefit all of you equally. If any of you have experience with that, I could be interested, but dealing with random people online with money also has me a bit ehhhh. I’m just thinking out loud though.

Any other thoughts so far it in things you want to see this group doing in the coming year?

Mbourgon,

Appreciate all the hard work, dude. For me it’s been fantastic seeing all these photos. It’s a very big bracket, so you could probably simplify that. I loved the mix of owls I’ve never seen and the “standards”

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

To keep an even bracket, it’s powers of 2, so 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. This isn’t too bad for a once a year thing. I think I’d feel I’d leave too much it t knocking it down to 16.

I’m glad you’re learning about a lot of new animals. Owls are pretty fun, because since they’re so secretive, we’re still learning new things about them.

LetKCater2U,

Maybe next year there can be user submissions and you can choose the best of those for the brackets? Then at least some of the work is done for you.

EDIT: I really appreciate all your hard work btw! Love this community so much!

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

Open submissions is definitely doable. That could be used for the seeding as well. I just picked them all to get a good variety of everything out there, so we can use a combo of both next time.

I’m glad you’re having fun here. I feel this place’s purpose is important. I’m a little meh about Lemmy lately, not sure if it’s my feed, but I check in at ALL a lot and most stuff feels like it’s drifted back to all the negative and anger inspiring stuff of politics and tech companies being evil. Most of the time lately I come post and then bail after seeing what is in Top. I used to hang more in Beehaw for that reason, but there’s hardly any local posts there anymore, so I rarely log in over there either. I just want to be upset if something positive, so as long as you guys are having fun and being cool with each other, I’ll keep posting for you!

LetKCater2U,

You definitely have to curate your feed, even on All! I block most of the politics and news communities specifically for that reason. Otherwise it can be overwhelmingly depressing. If something is important enough, it’ll make it into my feed anyway.

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I feel I’ll be blocking more than letting through soon! 😅

teamevil,

Great Horned… it’s name tells you it’s great!

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

But does that make the Greater Sooty better than the Great Horned??? 😉

proudblond,

GHO is my favorite bird of all time. Love hearing them when I’m camping even if I can’t find them visually. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a couple of rescues who are ambassadors for their rescue programs and they are just the coolest. So chill, like they don’t give a care in the world with their half-lidded stares. Between that, their ears, and their hoot, they’re hands down my favorite. I wish one would come live in my trees but my neighborhood is too suburban.

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

You said it! I don’t think you could possibly like owls at all and not think GHO is cool. The Barn Owl’s ubiquity around the world is the only thing that got it the number 1 seed over this guy. Conquering all 3 Americas is still nothing to complain about!

Paradachshund,

I’ve never heard of a flammulated owl before and it has won my heart 🥹

casmael,

Same new favourite owl unlocked might draw it later ✍️

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I’m glad! I’m really surprised to see the strong start it has and the love it’s getting against inner if the greatest owls (or any bird really) in the world.

Maruki_Hurakami,

This one is tough! I love the look of the FO but I’m going GHO for being iconic.

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I can’t fault you one bit. I’m hoping this boosts Flammy’s popularity for the future though. That’s the best realistic outcome for this match. 🥺

rigatti,
@rigatti@lemmy.world avatar

The GHO is truly iconic. It’s what everyone thinks of when they hear the word “owl”. But the FO got dem eyes. I’m on team FO.

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I love me some Flammulated Owl! They’re a nice mod of the basic Screech framework that is really popular. Not sure why this owl isn’t more well known, really underrated. I hope this gets him a little more popular.

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

Great Horned Owl

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/470bacc6-be1f-4fe2-a53e-79cf67dffb5d.jpeg

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e84890ca-5a22-4409-bb33-f3d0389e5e88.jpeg

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/198dd74a-cb88-492a-bebc-97376f4209b1.jpeg

Nouveau_Burnswick,

Who’s the greatest scientist?

Owl-bert Einstein!

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/470bacc6-be1f-4fe2-a53e-79cf67dffb5d.jpeg

Chetzemoka,

New meme format just dropped

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

Link

Do I take care of you guys or what? 😏

Chetzemoka,

Yassssssssss

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

Buh dum tisss

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

Flammulated Owl

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/75152faa-f3e6-4bcb-8543-9fc91108a198.jpeg

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e423081b-85a4-42c0-983e-a99a1136ba08.jpeg

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/85bdc170-a838-4e98-8c7b-fa063022833b.jpeg

Chetzemoka,

Why are they all my favorite owl 😭

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

Why do you think I’m making you guys choose?! 😉

Nouveau_Burnswick,

#2: “Don’t come in! I’m not ready!”

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I can’t resist putting up the tiny bird booty shots when I see them!

You’ve been adding lots of good commentary lately. Are you new to the group, and did anything in particular bring you here?

Nouveau_Burnswick,

Lurking for a while, but the Owl brackets got me more involved.

anon6789,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

Good! I felt it was a good way for people to feel like they could chime in without feeling the need to bring facts or anything like that. It’s nice having other people at captions and comments to the photos. I try to bring education, but overall I want all of you to be having fun!

andellor,

The way they can really blend in with the bark of trees won me over.

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