The bracket is made!

I think this year’s lineup is an improvement over last year. Based on what I’ve seen, all the opening matches look very competitive. My goal was to fix some of the lop-sided wins we had, and I’m feeling good about how this schedule looks.

There’s going to be some tough choices for you guys. Much like last year, I’m glad I don’t need to decide, but I’m still going to have to accept some painful loses at some point. I try to keep impartial during the tournament, but I definitely have some personal favorites. Sooty vs GHO is one where I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye to either one.

You guys didn’t nominate my beloved Spotted Wood Owl. Buff Fronted got in, which I was happy for, but its first opponent is last year’s winner.

I’m excited to see the Battle of the Southern Hemisphere between Australia’s Barking Owl and NZ’s Morepork.

We’ve got Eurasia’s biggest owls going head-to-head.

Snowy, Burrowing, and Buffy are all up against some flashy newcomers where we could have a surprise victory like the unexpected triumphs the Flammulated Owl had last year,

I think I will start the games Wed, 4 DEC after I get back from some travel. Then we’ve got a little over 2 weeks of excitement to crown this year’s winner. I’ll put the final 4 owls in the banner again and the winner gets the icon.

Got a personal favorite you’re ready to cheer on to victory?

Let me know which matches you are most looking forward to or dreading the most!

  • marron12@lemmy.world
    6·
    23 days ago

    I’m curious to see how far the saw whet will get. They’re so cute with their giant heads and big eyes. Eagle owls are neat too. Maybe not as classically cute, but majestic.

    I had to look up barking owls just now. They really do sound kind of like a dog barking. Interesting that they eat bats. I didn’t know there were birds that did that.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      8·
      23 days ago

      Owls have quite diverse diets. If it’s meat and they can fly off with it, they’ll generally eat it. Frogs, worms, butterflies, other birds up to turkeys, snakes, squirrels, rabbits, skunks, porcupines, fish, and some will pick at carrion as well, so there’s not much they won’t snack on.

      The Powerful Owl didn’t make it in this time, but it can take down things bigger than itself, which is very rare, as most raptors try to limit themselves to closer to prey 20% of their body weight. With Australia’s bountiful list of fauna, they eat possums (different than the North American opossums), the giant flying fox bats, and young koalas. They’re very impressive hunters!

      Pics aren’t too graphic, but I’ve hidden them to be polite.

      PO w/ possum

      PO w/ flying fox

      PO w/ koala

      • marron12@lemmy.world
        4·
        23 days ago

        I’d like to see an owl eating a porcupine. If it’s anything like a camel eating cactus, it’s gotta be pretty interesting. Maybe they have a way to pull out the spines.

        Interesting pictures, and a very striking owl. How do you decide who gets in the bracket?

        • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
          8·
          23 days ago

          I didn’t see any pics or videos of any owls actually with the porcupine but there was an article about an Eagle Owl that was eating porcupines, and this Facebook post where they are removing quills from this GHO’s face. I took a still for those who are Facebook averse.

          I picked all the owls last year, and the event was a big hit, but there were a few matches that were one sided, which makes sense since all the owls were ones I picked.

          This year I took the 16 that you guys moved one from the first round last year.

          Then I took the 16 that lost the first round and I put them up for vote to give another chance to anyone that lost just because of a tough pairing, like Great Horned losing in the first round. I kept the top 8 of the poll there.

          For the final 8, I picked 16 more owls based on posts you guys have most up voted this year, plus 8 that have either never been posted here or only once or twice. I kept the top 8 of those, filling the last spots.

          I seeded them by looking at the average upvotes from last year for the returning ones and the results from the 2 qualifiers. The resulting bracket looks much more competitive now that I had data from you guys to work with.

          Those camels are intense eating that! It was like watching someone eat glass! 😧

          • marron12@lemmy.world
            3·
            22 days ago

            Interesting article, thanks for the link. I missed owl of the year last year, and the first couple posts this year. It sounds like an awful lot of work, but I love the idea.

            • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
              4·
              21 days ago

              It is pretty time consuming, and some of the rarer owls are really hard to find good pics of, but seeing everyone get passionate about their favorite and feeling the tension on the close voting makes everyone really feel involved in the community. It also gives me a better idea of what you guys like and want to see more of. It pulled in a lot of new fans from the All feed too, so it’s good advertising for us.

              I think it helps my overall goal of letting everyone know about all 250+ owls, to show how unique they all can be, and to give people a bigger reason to care about our planet and the people trying to save it, one animal or tree at a time. It’s becoming more crucial all the time, and saving nature starts with making people appreciate what we have and to give it intrinsic value.

                • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
                  2·
                  6 days ago

                  I believe that is a Spotted Eagle Owl, not a GHO. The Great Horns do get greyer the further north they go. Spotted is an African Owl, GHO is American. Don’t know where you’re at, but that should help.

                  I kinda love that about the Middle East and African Eagle Owls, they kind of gradient between the GHO and the Eurasian Eagle.