/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!

    • Mister Neon@lemmy.world
      3·
      4 hours ago

      Chicuatli! (maybe…)

      Backing this one and the barn owl if they get thrown in.

      I’ll once again be backing my tecolomeh.

      • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
        3·
        4 hours ago

        Barnie is already in at a very respectable 6th seed.

        Barred just missed getting a free pass at 17th place last year, but I’m hoping it gets some love due to being a fugitive of the US gov right now.

        I just saw there is a place, Tecolotlán, “the place of the owls”, which has a very crowded coat of arms, but is crested by one large owl.

        This was the best image I could find of it, though it would be helpful to have a bigger one to see what all is going on here, it seemed they didn’t want to leave anything out of it! 😅

            • Mister Neon@lemmy.world
              2·
              2 hours ago

              They honored them because they were afraid of them. Owls were considering portents and harbingers of death in a lot of Aboriginal American cultures.

              • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
                2·
                2 hours ago

                They still get a lot of hate in many parts of the world from holding similar beliefs. Respecting them as an omen is one thing, but when they start hurting them to keep them away is something else.

                I avoid sharing those stories usually because they’re usually real downers and I don’t know anything else really about the people still hating on owls. I don’t think they should be torturing or killing them, but I don’t want to be weighing in on random ethnic minorities, as I’m sure they get enough of that already.

                Owls are a bit spooky if you don’t know what they are, but that has nothing to do with them, we’re just often afraid of the unknown and mysterious.

                • Mister Neon@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  1 hour ago

                  I don’t have any direct anecdotes about the killing of owls in Mixtec Pueblo culture. That being said I would not be surprised by such things. They had a tendency to sacrifice quite a few organisms.

                  If they killed owls for ritualistic purposes it’s not like they treated humans any better.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      4·
      3 hours ago

      Burrow Owl didn’t do as well last year as I had expected. They are gonna need more Bill Srs and Jonny Wursters showing up this year to stay competitive.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      5·
      4 hours ago

      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?

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      4·
      3 hours ago

      I don’t think many of us are used to elections where all the candidates are good. Our brains aren’t ready for that!

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      6·
      3 hours ago

      We have a Buffy Fish Owl. Not totally the same, but I find all 3 equally good looking.

      I don’t usually get any requests, but I can put him in Group D and give him a shot since you caught me early enough. I still want to get C and D out tonight.