WINNER: WHITE FACED SCOPS 63-52
White Faced Scops has had a similar time to the Snowy Owl. Lesser known, but widely recognized, it has beaten the large Spectacled Owl, the tiny Saw Whet Owl, and has just edged out another long time favorite, the Burrowing Owl. Whitey has been a bit of a dark horse, stacking up wins while still staying under everyone's radar as to making it to the final 4 today. All eyes are on him now though.
The Screech Owl is lived by almost all. It has the angry potato charm of the little brown owls, but adds different colors, more heavily patterned plumage, and a pair of adorable plumicorns. It's the last of the top 4 seeded owls to remain in the tournament. Will the Screechie be able to hold its own today, or will the White Faced take out the last of the original top 4?
Vote now!
They're both formerly of the same genus before they both got split off into their own genuses, genusi, genus??? so they have a good bit of similarities. I didn't want to present them as just different due to geography either, as it's more complex than that, plus I don't want anyone basing this off country.
It's another real tough choice overall. Snowy and Buffy have a similar size and body shape, but otherwise way more differences than these 2 do.
I googled it - so much drama in taxonomy! Also learned that screech owls have a courtship duet song, so that seals it for me. #TeamScreech
The breakdown of genus is another article idea I've been toying with. I enjoy the history of owl studies and the etymology behind the names.
Do it! I didn’t know much about owls before this & have just been casually googling. A ‘guided tour’ of the history would be amazing.
Ok! I'm planning to kick back a little after this, but I'll bump it up on my to do list. It teaches me a lot too, so that's a plus for me.