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!
Oh yes, don’t forget to vote in today’s 2 matches as well!
White Faced Scops vs Spectacled
Snowy vs Black and White
Great Horned clears the first few rounds ezpz
First 2 rounds I’m right there with you, but I’m not sure if GHO is too “ordinary” to beat Snowy or the Oriental Bay Owl to make the final 4.
I think its only stiff competition before it goes to the finals is the barn owl
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.
I’m definitely one of the heartbroken barred owl people. I love the tourney though! I look forward to the new posts each morning.
I haven’t fully decided now, but I’ll be rooting for Mr. Sooty!
Thanks for doing all the work on the tournament!
It’s a little tough time wise for me getting basically 2 full posts ready in the morning before work, but the fun is worth it. I’m glad it’s only for like 10 days though! 😅
I wish I could save drafts and publish when I want, but for now I at least prep photos at night.
Sooty getting that win was a fun surprise for me.
Thank you so much for putting up this cute tournament! I came late (phrasing!) but I hope I won’t miss anymore matches.
I’m happy to see people having fun with it! It’s a way for everyone to participate. Lots of people feel they don’t have anything to add, which makes something like this a good gateway to participation.
I learned about this just in time to vote for my favorite bird of all time, the Snowy Owl!
Awesome! You may have the chance to do it again if the pace keeps up for him!
How’d you find out about it? I try to spam the group tastefully, so I’m curious as to what works.
This post!
Oh cool! Welcome to the action then!
Hell yeah, Morepork! We knew you could do it, little guy.
Also, Team Goth Owls represent!
I’m really proud of the little Ruru. If NZ only gets one native living owl, at least they got a good one!
(Psst… They’re all good, but still… 😆)
If regular owl isn’t gloomy enough, check out the new line of Goth Owls by SuperbOwl!
Oh no ! The Eurasian Eagle Owl (T_T)
Europe’s sweetheart
<3
Thanks for the update and the big work you do to animate this community beyond posting. That’s a great contest. It super fun, especially your comments on the matchs. You could have a carrier as commentateur sportif !
I was very shocked when Eagle Owl lost. I thought he really had potential.
The Tawny Owl just looks so snuggly all the time. They probably aren’t, but they just look like a stuffed animal. I was surprised by the person that mentioned the story of Squirrel Nutkin, the antagonist of the story is Old Brown, a very sadistic sounding Tawny.
I’m glad you all have fun here with me. I try hard for you guys. I want to be fun and educational and get you all to care for these great animals. If we ever get more people to post, it’s be fun to do other animals too.
I’m also glad the sports chatter is decent. I’m not a sports person, so I’m just doing my best impression for you all to spice things up and give that feeling of authenticity. 😅
I’m not a sport person either and you catched my attention in a way sport industry couldn’t.
You can now add commentator of the superbowl on your internet CV !
Now I just need to find someone willing to pay for that skill!
This has been much fun so far and I’m very glad to see everyone getting into the spirit of it.
Subscribed!!!
Welcome aboard!
Check out the back catalog, tons of great stuff in there.
The Owl-natomy: Talons and Owl-natomy: Feathers are 2 I’m very proud of, and if you’re in the US, the 50 States of Owls, of course!
If you have any questions, just let me know!
Long eared vs. Buffy fish seems like such an upset! Hehe
I love both of them so much so whichever way it went I was going to be happy and disappointed! Better luck next season LEO!
I didn’t have thought much about owls in the past until I discovered this sub a few weeks ago. Now I love them. Also this showdown event is so much fun. Thanks you guys!
I’m glad you’re enjoying everything. They are secretive, but wonderful animals!
If there’s anything you want to see or know, just say so!
This has been a lot of fun so far.
Blakiston’s Fish Owl is just so large and fluffy! I could never vote for Tawny Owl, though, because I think that is the type of owl that Old Brown is in Squirrel Nutkin and I was terrified of that owl as a child.
My favorite owls are Tytos, so I’ll be rooting for Barn Owl to win it. Unless some new Tyto captures my heart. (I do love Sooty Owl, too. So cool looking. 🖤)
I’d never heard of Squirrel Nutkin before, but after reading the plot summary it does sound quite morbid for a kid’s story! I’ll have to see if I can read it tonight. 😆
It says he is indeed a Tawny Owl. I’d usually post a pic for everybody but familiar, but I won’t subject you to that since you taught me something new.
My favorite Tyto is the upcoming Oriental Bay Owl. I’ve been talking about him a lot lately, but I used to not like Tytos because they were too alien looking, but the OBO made the rest look normal by comparison, so now I love them all! OBO is just such an oddball. If you don’t know him yet, I’d just wait until his matchup and let yourself be surprised.
Sooty Owl does indeed rock, as do all the Aussie and NZ owls!
Update: Old Brown did nothing wrong! That owl was so patient, and that little Nutkin wouldn’t leave him the heck alone for 6 days straight!
The owl just napped there, leaving the squirrels to take whatever they wanted from Owl Island. He didn’t harass the squirrels. He didn’t demand payment from a bunch of squirrels that apparently had no problem with animal sacrifice! But that Nutkin kept making noise and poking him in his sleep and doing annoying kid stuff to him as he was trying to sleep after working the overnight shift, and none of the adult squirrels who managed to figure out ship building for them to get to Owl Island had the decency to tell the kid to knock it off or to leave him back home when they were guests who invited themselves.
It may be because I’m in my 40s and have no kids hearing this story for the first time, but Nutkin and the other squirrels got off easy!
Beatrix Potter YouTube channel link
This is all tongue in cheek of course. It was a fun little story and is forgetten how cute her animal drawings are. Thank you for sharing this with me!
LOL, yeah, looking back on it as an adult, I can see how annoying Nutkin was. But when I was a kid Old Brown was pretty scary.
I used to think Barn Owls were creepy looking, but now I love them. Their coloring/pattern is just so pretty. I will wait and be surprised by OBO. I’m loving seeing all the lesser known (to me) owls.
It definitely seems the moral is don’t annoy adults too damn much 😅
White-faced, and the black & white
Whoops, I forgot to close these out, thanks for reminding me! 😅
