The votes of Round 1 are in, and these are the owls moving on to the tournament:
- Long Eared
- Crested
- Eurasian Eagle
- Great Horned
- Barred
- Oriental Bay
- Barking
- Spectacled
Thanks for all your votes. You made some good choices. Tawny is the one I’m saddest to see go, they look so gentle and loveable, but there is always next year and any other time I find a good picture.
It’s time to select the final 8! There are a lot of owls we have to seen very much of, possibly a few we’ve never had featured before. Let me know who you like, and then I can get our bracket set up.
Rules are simple and the same as before: simply upvote which you like.
Vote for one or two, vote for all, vote for none, the choice is yours.
Downvotes do not count.
Ladies and gentlemen, the choices are yours. Let’s see those votes! I’ll leave this open for a week again.
#superbowl #owloftheyear24
Philippine Scops Owl
A lot of owls have these little horns / “ears” and they’re very cute!
They have a wonderful name too - plumicorns - from the Latin pluma/feather and corn/horn.
There’s not true consensus one why they’re there, but the leading thoughts are communication (I agree with this one) and to help with camouflage (I feel skeptical on this one). They can move them around, so there’s muscle control for some reason. Many owls will elongate to look more like tree branches, but I’ve done a post that I can’t find now comparing owls with and without horns, and the horns are typically so small I can’t see how they’d make the relatively large body blend in much better.
Mottled Wood Owl
Milky Eagle Owl
Boreal Owl
Dusky Eagle Owl
Indian Scops Owl
Buff Fronted Owl
Another owl with a make-up face (^_^)
I also really like its patch of “hair” on its head!
Black Banded Owl
Brown Hawk Owl
Marsh Owl
Aw yeah, that’s a real working person’s owl right there.
You know he’s got a 35-year old pickup truck next to the garage he’s kept running for decades despite the inside being full of receipts and wrappers and an ashtray full of change.
It doesn’t have time for the beauty regime of the Shortie. It’s got real work to do!
Looks like my cat when she’s angy. 🤣
Cat tax! Cat tax! 😸
Spotted Owlet
Eurasian Scops
Bubo!
I do like Harryhausen
Bubo is timeless!
Genus bubo no longer strictly only has horned owls in it thanks to the fishing owls.
The word bubo though, is Latin, so it is an interesting name choice for a Greek owl-bot.
The most appropriate word for owl from Ancient Greek I could find from a brief search is “glaukós,” which means “bright” in reference to their eyes.
Pel’s Fishing Owl
This face XD
It’s happy and angry at the same time! 😆
Himalayan Owl
