You’ve waited for it, and now it is here: your 2025 OotY lineup!
There look to be many competitive races right off the bat. There’s an amazing assortment of owl type from around the globe, and in the third year, we’ve really refined the list of owls down to some of the best. Both halves of the bracket seem balanced, and no owl has what I feel is an easy path forward. This may be our best tournament ever!
My goal is to start the games Monday Dec 1 with White Face / Buff Fronted and Spectacled / Black and White.
In the meanwhile, take a look at the bracket and tell me which matches have you excited/anxious. Which are going to be the toughest for you? Who has the best chance of winning? Do you see one who you think is going to come out of nowhere? Will Saw Whet or White Face win again, or are we going to see a new champ crowned? Whatever your thoughts, let’s hear them!
Cripes I’m losing my shirt on this bracket. I feel like there should be a superbowl version of formula1dank memes or something.
Of course it could be some shady syndicate manipulating the votes to get their owl to the top.
Right?! Some of these were nuts. Barn, GHO, Burrowing, and Spectacled are out already. White Face was trailing a noob for a solid chunk of time. There have been some big shake ups.
I think overall numbers may be lower than last year, so there are no signs of obvious fowl play.
It’s kept my attention in every match. The last 2 years I felt I could pick a good number of winners, but not this year.
I think overall numbers may be lower than last year, so there are no signs of obvious fowl play.
I see what you did there. That’s a hoot!
I’m a witty one 🤡
Got my bracket all filled out! Let’s hope I can get at least one guess right.
I get a ton wrong and do occasionally wonder what the heck you all are thinking picking some over others 😊
Do you dare say who your pick for the winner is?
I’m not off to a very good start :(
The rest of the bracket looks pretty good, I think! Great Horned vs now White Face would be a tough one but not untenable.
Ural over Eagle Owl would be an interesting course of events too. It’s the kind of surprise the previous matches show is possible.
I like your picks!
Thank you!
I really thought that Great Horned had a better shot against Barking, so I was hoping the votes would go that way.
It’s still anybody’s game!
Nobody wants to end up facing that sly Scops! I’m hoping people’s desire for variety wins out again and we get a different winner, though at least it isn’t back to back if it does win. Snowy is a very solid choice.
This channel is what I actually give thanks for this weekend!
Well I appreciate that. I hope I can continue to live up to the standard that’s been set!
Looks good! I think Sooty v Great Horned should be interesting.
And also, Go Screechies!
Sooty vs GHO is the opener that’s gonna break my heart either way. That immediately caught my eye and got a nooooooooo 😭 out of me.
Screech has a fighting chance, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see Screech vs the champ Saw Whet.
I rally behind the fish owls, let’s go!!!
You’ve got 3 of the 4 of them, so the odds work in your favor!
COME ON GREAT HORNED OWL WOOOOOOO
GHO is a timeless beauty. It’s what my mind defaults to when I hear the word owl. What a combo of beauty and power!
I saw TWO of them two nights ago! Hooting that amazing call to each other. Almsot cried.
It’s an amazing sound! I like when they really lean into it and use their whole body to really blast that hoot out there 😀
I’m thrilled you got to see some! As fun as the pics and stories here are, nothing beats the real thing!
Barn and Spectacled should win their first matchups easily, but I don’t know who-who will win that matchup to advance past the Sweet Sixteen 😰
Mottled did well in the qualifier and BnW was no slouch last season itself.
For myself, I’ve been a huge Barnie fan this year, and Speccy has done great in the regular postings recently, but one’s gotta keep in mind they share this section of the bracket with Snowy. The Snowy fans have to be feeling overdue by now!
As always i am on Team Saw Whet. Go team!
So little, so angry, such a cute owl…
If Saw Whet doesn’t win, the whole thing is rigged
Saw Whet is as popular as ever! It’s been an amazing champion.
Go, Burrowing! Boreal is going to be a tough opening match, but I have a good feeling we’ll start strong and go deep in the bracket. Look out; we’re coming in hot!
That face is just too cute 🥰
Rooting for the Eurasian Eagle owl, as usual !
Big, bad, yet beautiful! One of my favs.
Let’s fucking Go Ruru!
Morepork for those outside NZ. I was surprised to see it on the list tbh
Ruru actually finished 5th overall last year and I’m pretty sure did ok in 2023 as well. It’s an adorable little owl with a fun name and has a built in international fan base thanks to the Discworld series of novels.
I try to make sure to cover the world of owls as evenly as possible, so there’s no forgetting NZs unique (but no longer only) owl.
Oh that’s cool. I’m glad to see the Ruru getting some love.
I haven’t read Discworld, but I know a few people that have that enjoyed it, so maybe I should get around to it some time. There’s just so many its a bit intimidating!
I think there are 42 books, so it is a lot. I put it off forever, but started this year with Guards, Guards (#8) and loved that, then did Mort (#4), Equal Rites (#3), and then figured I better start at the beginning since I seemed to be invested.
Someone had told me The Hogfather live action movie was on YouTube, and I watched that last year before reading the books, and was a bit lost on what was going on, but still enjoyed it.
I’m on Pyramids (#7) now, and while they all seem rather self contained at this point where you could start anywhere, Guards, Guards is a good place to start if you prefer a crime story centered around dragons, or Mort to get a solid into to Death, who generally at least has a few pop-ins in each story.
Lore feels well established, but not deep, so it’s not intimidating to learn how this universe works, and if something seems unusual like an orangutan librarian, don’t expect much deeper of an intro than that, he’s cool with it, so people just leave him to his books, so why should the reader question it deeper than that? It’s just fun to read for the sarcasm, wit, and funny events, nothing to be taken seriously.
Yea, I’ve heard it’s quirky like that. And I know there are a lot of good quotes that have emerged from it. Maybe that will be my new years resolution. Read one book and see how I get on.
They make great audiobooks, since they’re pretty light reading. I switched from my normal doom and gloom news podcasts to Discworld on my commute and can knock them out fairly quickly as they’re in the 8-9 hour range. So far, they’ve all been on YouTube, though one got pulled part way through and I needed to find my place again.
Oh, on YouTube. Are they not copyright anymore?
I’ve been listening to audiobooks lately, so I might have a look on YouTube!
They don’t look to be officially sanctioned, but they don’t seem to be too aggressively monitored either. I watched the animated movie for The Wyrd Sisters the other week after finishing that, and that video says it’s been up for 12 years. If you’re just looking to see if you like the humor, it’s a quick way anyone can access.
Well, it’s no surprise GHO is up against a lower-seeded team, the Sootys, because they want to ease into the season and roll up some of those OotY points when it starts to get real later in the bracket.
Personally, I think the Snowy / Barnie matchup later in the season is going to be wild but as they say, don’t count your owls before they’re updooted.
I expect Snowy and Barn to win their openers, but a Specky vs Barnie, I couldn’t confidently pick one over the other this early.
GHO should probably take it over Sooty, but I’m a big Sooty fan, so either way I’m not gonna be in love with the outcome.
Woot! Saw Whet in þe opposite bracket from WFS!
I’m calling þis year early for Spectacled.
Speck would make a great spokes owl for us. It has great potential!
Saw Whet and White Face have are going to have a fun run. I think both are going to go far again.
Is it kosher to change þe community avatar regularly? I know a donation goes in þe name of þe winner, but I just realized I don’t know if you change it to þe winner each year.
Do you have a way for us to contribute to þe OOTY winnner donation? We have a raptor rescue here run by þe University, but þey seem to focus mostly on … not-owls. Hawks and eagles, mostly, it seems.
Dragonfly has been happy to do it the last 2 years. We had pretty standard stuff in there originally and someone suggested we change the images as the prize and it was a popular choice. Winner gets the icon, 2nd gets the sidebar banner, and the final 4 get on the community banner.
I encourage you to support your local groups, so that keeps me (or someone pretending to be me) aking you for money, plus they are your wild animals and I think we should all support our local rehabbers. It is tough physical, mental, and often just plain icky work, and nobody gets any public money so all these programs are funded totally by people like us.
We didn’t get many owls this year, more hawks, but even for the handful of owls we do get, it costs a couple $ a day to feed them. The larger rodents/chicks they need can be up to $2 each, plus tons of cleaning supplies and medical tools, housing, and the heating cooling bills, it all adds up too quickly. If you are lucky enough to have a local rehab (many places arent served by anyone within a few hours drive in some parts of America) they should be who you go to because they’re making sure your community is being served. Most rehabs don’t make it more than a year or 2 because it is so time consuming and expensive.
If you do want to donate to the clinic I work at, or just to see where I pitch in: Aark Wildlife
Þanks for þe explanation. I believe our’s is run by þe university; I contacted þem at one point about donations and didn’t get a response ¯\(ツ)/¯ It’s þe only raptor rescue in þe local area I’ve been able to find.
If you need help looking for a place, I can always try to find someone if you PM me a general area.
People get mad at us all the time for not answering phones/emails, but with just volunteers, replies fall toward the bottom of our task lists. Usually we just save the messages and try to knock them out in blocks.
If you want to donate to the Aark, I won’t fight too hard to dissuade you, but I know every rehab needs all the help it can get, so I dont want any of you guys to forgo your own animals just because I share some pics and comments or feel I only keep sharing because you guys “give me stuff” or something along those lines.
We’re in þe middle of relocating to CA at þe moment. I’m sure we’ll find plenty of rescues around here (þe Bay area).
Oh boy, do I have info for you!
East Bay had the Lindsay, where you can see a Great Horned and Western Screech.
SF Zoo has a Barnie, Eurasian Eagle, and a Spectacled.
A few San Francisco parks have also been hosting a resurgence of wild GHO building nests and people have been flocking to see them. I’ve also heard there are resident Burrowing Owls.
Finally, if you venture a little out of the Bay Area, you may be tempted by the Sacramento Zoo. I see they list a capybara, which I forget if you are also a fan of them, but I know a lot of the owl community also enjoy them, buuuuuut I do see they list this as one of the species they care for. I see some people sharing photos from this and last year, but I can’t guarantee anything of course, but this may be something you’d want to investigate. I also see people sharing photos and stories of them having GHO and Burrowing Owls which are not listed, so zoo displays change and the lists aren’t always super up to date.
In my heart, the winner is the Milky Eagle.
But, as usual, I will be voting for all of them.
I really love the positivity the Milky gets here. It was yet unusual to me, and the name wasn’t the most appealing, but it’s a very unique and powerful owl and seems pretty cool overall. I want to meet one and have it wink its pink eyelids at me 😁
