Our finalist from last year, Eurasian Eagle Owl was locked in a dead heat all day with Buffy. I finally found a person to break the tie, and while they didn’t like the flying pics of Buffy as much, they liked its floppy plumicorns and more casual look over the more rigid Eurasian Eagle Owl.
Since I had no idea which outcome to prepare for, I made a photoset for both. So here is what we would have gotten to face off against White Face had it gone the other way.
A want a gigantic monster of a bird to win this contest and I won’t discriminate.
Buffy and Snowy are definitely heavy duty hiboux!
You are mistaken my english speaking french: even though the snowy owl has tiny plumicorns, their size and position make them almost invisible and commun language consider the harfangs des neiges as a chouette even though it is from the Bubo family which is the most distinctivly hibou family of them all.
Edit: After a quick wikipedia check it seems to be also classified as a member of the Strix family, which is very clearly a family of chouette .
Animal classification brings out the worst in biologists and linguists 😁
Haha, exactly! 😁
All the new availability of genetic testing has both let us know more than ever, but also expands our awareness of all we don’t know and disproves things we thought we knew without always giving new answers.
And then all the worst people get mad about having to redo all their writing and start calling things other names.