this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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Owl of the Year Match 14 - Elf Owl vs Powerful Owl (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by anon6789@lemmy.world to c/superbowl@lemmy.world
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WINNER: ELF OWL 47-27

The matchup many of you have been waiting for!

The Elf Owl is a sparrow sized owl of the Southwest US and Mexico and Baja. It loves to live in woodpecker holes in giant desert cacti. It has trademark white eyebrows, sure to get your attention. Don't try to hold it though, when grabbed, it will play dead in an attempt to escape! These tiny owls are bug hunters, and love to eat scorpions, where they remove to stinger before swallowing them. Will this tiny owl be able to take on its challenger today?

The Powerful Owl is the largest of the Australian owls. It dominated the eastern coast forests where it eats a variety of medium sized marsupials like gliders and possums. The Powerful Owl is known for taking prey much larger in relation to its own size than almost any other raptor. It can also catch the largest bat, the Flying Fox. Will this giant defeat the tiny Elf?

Upvote your favorite below!

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[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 48 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Elf Owl

[–] Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Got any cocaine?

[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It has eyebrows !

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Existe-t-il une célébrité française célèbre pour ses sourcils ? Nous avons Eugene Levy, qui est en fait canadien, mais populaire dans les films American Pie. On dirait qu'on les appelait "Folies de Graduation" au Canada, je n'ai pas encore compris d'où vous venez. Je sais qu'il y a pas mal de pays francophones.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 30 points 11 months ago

Powerful Owl

[–] Lophostemon@aussie.zone 12 points 11 months ago (3 children)

A Powerful Owl once attempted to make off with my mother-in-law, lifting her several metres into the sky and mostly ripping off her head before dropping her into a tangle of exotic brambles.

She recovered quickly however and is still shrieking instructions to all concerned at all times, despite the eventual loss of her head due to massive infection, probably because the silly owl never cleans its claws.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

As an American, I will just take any Australian animal stories as 100% true no matter what! 😁

[–] casmael@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago

D:

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It must have been a powerful owl that took that lady and threw her down the stairs...

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If you're talking about the Kathleen Peterson theory, that was a Barred Owl.

All owls, and most birds in general, will try to fend you off if you get to close, but Barred Owls are generally the most common to make the news for attacking people. You can see some nasty cuts people have gotten if you search for them.

I think it was in ~~Georgia~~ North Carolina this year, people named there local owl Owl Capone or something like that after he attacked a number of people and they even started selling shirts of him.

Found a link

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I was talking about her, but really only making a joke, i didn't even remember the details

Thanks for reminding me ( i had even forgotten the name ).

Some animals are lucky to have good humans around them:

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I figured so, but I have heard of that theory until recently when one of you all filled me in. I don't do true crime stuff often, so I hadn't heard it before.

It's nice when the neighborhoods rally around the owl. I've read some post where people take it as a badge if honor being swooped by the owl.

[–] onigiri@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I thought I was experiencing deja vous, but there was also an owl in a Christmas tree in 2019 in Georgia. Link

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

They got their next year's Christmas card out of it at least, that's a great shot!

[–] onigiri@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I had to vote Elf Owl, but Powerful Owl might have the coolest name of any owl!

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I certainly can't fault you on your choice, both are great owls. I like the unique shape of the Aussie owls, but you all have shown a strong preference to the cute little brown owls, so I was prepared for voting going this way.

I'm curiously looking forward to seeing how it goes if we get to any type of Elf/Pygmy/Little/Burrowing matchup. Looking at the lineup remaining though, I'm doubtful it's going to happen. I think they're up against too many owls with more flashiness that just be little and cute isn't going to be enough to move forward.

But I could be wrong!

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Not to try to sway any votes, but I found that Australia has the Big Powerful Owl sculpture in Canberra.

It's part of a series of around 600 giant statues spread across Australia, built mainly as tourist traps, but have now (according to what I read on the net) become a greater part of Australia's cultural identity.

Aussies, as usual, correct me if I'm wrong, or tell me if you've been to see one of thesen it which one is the best?

Wiki: Australia's Big Things

So...I read about this statue before seeing it...

I wrote what you see above, and went to grab a pic to add to the post. I had to stop and see if I was looking at the right owl statue, because I thought, oh, this can't be it.

In the politest way possible...there is really something wrong with you Australians, and I now understand why New Zealanders get so upset being lumped in with you guys. So, now back to the post in progress...

This 8 meter / 26 foot tall statue, from the front at least, vaguely resembles an owl. From the back however, it looks even more like it was just repurposed from some other better left unknown project.

This joins another "famous" "owl" statue in Serbia.

ABC AU: Brother to Canberra's notorious penis owl erected in northern Serbia

Sigh.

You guys pulled one over on me this time...

On a serious note, the more I talk to some of you guys from down there, I am really coming to appreciate your sense of humor when I read your news articles. Your self awareness is quite enjoyable. Never change!

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

They are truly penis owls, hilarious

[–] Cypher@aussie.zone 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The penis owl is real and has cost the ACT government around $75k AUD a year to remove graffiti from it until they installed CCTV to prevent further vandalism.

There’s also a giant butt plug statue in the suburb of Phillip in the ACT.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I tried to find pics if the graffiti, but I found this article instead, which did describe the graffiti, but that didn't sound very creative.

The 75k it says was for all their art maintenance, the owl was about 3k, which seemed to surprise them as well.

Do you have a link to the other statue? I just keep getting statues of Captain Phillip, the owl, or dong-like statues in other places.

[–] casmael@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

Oh my god what

[–] casmael@lemm.ee 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You could probably fit three or four elf owls into a Pringles can. Meanwhile, the powerful owl would have no trouble carrying a payload of three or four said cans….

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I could do the math on this, but it seems likely enough, plus I morbidly enjoy the visual. The Powerful Owl would definitely like that as well! The Elf Owl is unfortunately a target for other owls as it is already. When will the owl in owl violence end?! 🥺

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm with the elf owl

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

It's looking like this elf isn't getting left on the shelf any time soon!

Har har har

[–] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Man we really called an owl "Powerful Owl"? That guy gets my vote lol. Nice to see you're still posting so much cool content here btw

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think it fits right in with a proper tough "Outback" attitude, especially if we go by the Powerful Boobook naming. Gotta play up that Aussie lingo!

I'm glad you all keep coming back for more every day and letting me know you enjoy it. It's really a highlight of my day and I'd miss checking in with you guys otherwise. I like researching things and taking about it, but I'm typically a little on the quiet side and I don't think many people I know are interested in the kinds of things I like to learn, it at least not to discuss them to the extent I want to, so I'm glad you guys are here. It is me exercise a part of myself I don't normally get to share.

[–] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I can understand that. This is definitely the kind of community where we (the people in it) can feel more comfortable sharing the stuff we're interested in. For example, I would never feel comfortable posting a story or a piece of artwork I made on a big network like reddit, but I would feel better about posting here cause it's a smaller yet closer community. And I definitely have stuff that I don't share with my irl friends but I would share with my online friends, and vice versa. I definitely understand what you mean. I'm happy that we've got Lemmy and this community here.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I always really liked the wooden fish on the wall of the apartment in the Steins;Gate anime that they used to hold their mail. The derpy fish face always made me smile whenever I saw it in the background.

I thought about that fish for years. One day this summer I was looking at a piece of scrap 1x4 laying around, and I said even though this is way too small to make an actual copy, I didn't expect it to turn out great anyway, so over the next few days I whittled that board down into that fish using just my favorite pocketknife and a scrap of sandpaper.

It's not perfect, it's not even finished still, I can't decide to paint it or stain it, but now it sits on my mantle and I get to see it every day, and it makes me smile thinking if a story I really loved and the effort I put into doing something to make myself happy.

It's nothing compared to the woodworking stuff on Reddit. I can do pretty fancy stuff, I built furniture and such in school, but I live in a condo and can't have table saws and lathes and all that, but I can still do something. And like you says, I wouldn't "bother" Reddit with this, but this place is small and it's late in the thread anyway, so probably a dozen people will see this, but this is the real me sharing something with you guys who come to listen to what I have to show you every day that I felt you may think is maybe interesting. So here's my not quite finished palm sized mini fish mail holder replica.

[–] JetpackJackson@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I love it. That is a very awesome fish! You really captured its spirit.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Thank you! It did go better than it expected, with just that one chip it off the eye when I was carving the relief, but I glued it back in ok. It makes me smile, so it stress its job! 😁