Wow, those semi-final matches were intense! There was so much back and forth throught the day.
Snowy and Eagle had a number of changes in position during early voting until Eagle Owl got the advantage and stayed ahead for the final few hours.
Saw Whet and our returning champ, White Faced Scops, battled it out for the whole 24 hours! I couldn’t say how many times each was on top. The Scops had a fairly easy run of things until the little scapper finally made him work for it if it wanted to stay on top. Finally, with just a handful of last votes, Saw Whet held the lead until time ran out. The champ was defeated!
Now is the moment we’ve all waited for, the final showdown of the tournament! One owl large, the other small, but today they are here as equals. Only one of them will be our Owl if the Year though!
Both of these owls have earned their places. Saw Whet became a fan favorite, but had some very close matches, especially considering it had some rather tough opponents at every stage. A last win over the Great Horned Owl cemented this little bird as a true fighter and gave it what it needed to finally stop the Scops.
The Eurasian Eagle Owl was barely slowed down by the even larger Blakiston’s Fish Owl, the former fan favorite Flammulated Owl, and though the Morepork ran a very strong campaign, it wasn’t enough to outshine this massive and powerful owl.
You’ve faced many hard choices up until now, but this may be the hardest yet. It’s time to choose your new champion. On one hand, the mighty mini from the Canadian forests that punches above its weight and has beat all odds. On the other, an owl of undeniable strength and regalness, a true apex hunter. The time is here to decide: who is your new Owl of the Year?
Upvote your final choice now!
Both competitors had great match ups last night and really earned these spots!
They’re both really bringing their best here today, and I hope they make it hard to pick, and they are both truly excellent animals.
I hope you’ve had a great time participating. It’s been a ton of work, but it’s gotten many new people to comment and share, we’ve gone from almost falling to the third page of top communities to being back on the first. I hope you stick around into the coming year to see more great photos from around the world and get to learn many new things about the amazing world of owls!
thank you for making this instance my absolute favorite. i get so happy when I see these little owls 😊
It always makes me happy to know doing this makes so many of you feel good.
I hope you continue to hang out with us, and don’t be afraid to chime in with a comment or question now and then.
Don’t feel you need to add something witty or smart, just let me know what you like about it so I can give you more of what you enjoy. The owl, the backdrop, the lighting, etc.
i love it all! i send friends owl pictures now. and owl facts sometimes and I think its annoying them. but I love it. XD
That’s what I love to hear!
It was great, as always. My girlfried said she has to make an account for next year, so we can vote independently :-) Thank you so much for organising it! It was a lot of fun and surprising about of suspense.
I have just one suggestion. How about including latin names, at least in one place? It would make it easier to find correct local names. At the moment, I’m not really sure about the identities of some of the owls in my language, it would push me to learn them.
The owl of the year is a great door to the fediverse. I have been using my alts to account for my family’s votes.
Oh my, what an oversight on my part! That is an excellent suggestion. Here is a list so you can find any you’ve been wondering about.
List of Owl Species w/ Latin Names
I’ve been thinking about getting some things like this together to add to the sidebar, and that is a real good one.
The owls look forward to her votes for next year!
I think they all have English wikipedia pages, which give their Latin names. For example: Eurasian eagle-owl and Northern saw-whet. Many also have wikipedia pages in other languages.
You just accidentally reminded me that all the countries’ wikis are not direct translations from one source.
For fun, I just went to the French page for the Eurasian Eagle, and amongst other things, it gave me some French laws concerning the EEO, the department in the government that handles raptor licensing, and this cool French cave art of a horned owl!
As I learn where some of you are from, it makes me want to do more internationally focused things, and this could be a good way for me to find starting points to do that.