Update: Winners of Round 2
- Philippine Scops
- Milky Eagle
- Mottled Wood
- Boreal
- Dusky Eagle
- Indian Scops
- Buff Fronted
- Black Banded
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.