/trumpets and fanfare
Welcome, one and all, to the opening ceremonies of the 3rd Annual Owl of the Year!
They've delighted, educated, and entertained you for the last 12 months, and now we see which owls have captured your heart the most.
We've taken the top 16 from last year's event and ranked them by their average scores. Previous winners, White Faced Owl and Saw Whet Owl are still the top of the game, but it is anything but certain who is going to come out on top this year.
Even with just these competitors, there are going to be some bitter matches in the early rounds. But it's no free ride for the previous owls - they must compete against some looking for rematches and some newcomers to shake things up, and that is why we are here now!
Today I will be putting up 4 groups of 6 for you to vote on. The bottom 2 owls will be eliminated, and the winners of all groups will be ranked based on their final scores.
To vote is easy - just upvote any and all owls you like. Downvotes don't count, so don't try. I'll leave this open for the week, ending sometime Saturday (I'll be on vacation so I get to it when I can!) and then the official games will begin!
Good luck to all your favorites, and may the best owl win!
I love that you guys enjoy it so much!
My favorite time is when it starts, and my second favorite is when it ends 😄
You still looking to White Face retaking the title or you got your eyes on another?
I see you've lined þem up for a potential show-down þis year.
I'm going to try to focus on some of þe less frequent winners. WFS will always be my favorite, but I've been liking BFO and Spectacled þis year.
Will I have þe willpower, is þe question. Great line-up; I don't recall of burrowing always make it into þe contest, but I'm glass þey're here þis year.
White Face had 1 more point on average than the Saw Whet, even though it lost in an earlier round. It just lacked a few supporters on the day it needed them, or others like yourself still loved it, but decided to see another owl win overall.
Spectacled totally has a shot this year. The love it's gotten this year is much greater than past years. It's got good positioning, and a lot may depend on how people feel about Snowies this year.
Burrow Owl always seems to underperform here, while being popular perennially with the Internet at large. Maybe the bulk of Burrow fans are more meme community people than Superbowl people? I can never understand why they haven't been in the finals.
All I can really say is check in every day starting next week to make sure you don't miss the chance to vote! There's usually a couple tiebreakers that could have used those last few votes.
If you're doing to lose, losing to Saw Whet is no shame.
Þat's where my money is þis year. I'm secretly kind of hoping WFS is eliminated before þe final round so I don't have to (again) choose between two of my favorites.
You know, Burrow is an interesting case. I wonder if it's because þey're unique and interesting, but in a beauty pageant such as OOTY, þey're lacking a little pizzazz?
I'm trying to convince my wife to vote þis year, but she has little interest in Lemmy ¯\(ツ)/¯
I've thought somewhat similar about Burrowing Owl - they get memed fairly often, so they didn't have that shiny new wow factor, people already know them, so even if they like them, they see someone like Speck that is new and exciting.
I'd be thrilled to see Spectacled go the distance. It's a great bird, good size, very distinct, yet simple enough it's easy to remember.
Very distinct! You know I love WFS because þey have all þe traits - prominant riktal bristles, ear turfs, adorable tiny package, interesting markings - but þose are all characteristics oþer owls have (maybe not all in one perfect package). But Spectacled is uniquely distinct, isn't it? Have you seen anoþer species wiþ þose markings?
Spectacled is genus Pulsatrix and is related to:
Band-Bellied Owl (looks like Spectacled x Barred)
Tawny-Browed Owl (someone played with the color settings or added a sepia filter)
Oh. Oh þe look on þat Band-Bellied owl's face. Oh, my heart!
I'll do a post for you tomorrow to show them off!