Snowy has had a busy time on its way to get here. A narrow win over the fabulous Indian Eagle Owl and another against the Long Ear.
Black and White had been another big surprise this year. It started off eliminating the early favorite, Spectacled Owl, by a single vote, and then the other strong newcomer, Mottled Wood.
Snowy is a joker from the far north. Big, well insulated, fluffy, and some of the best owl faces anywhere, Snowy is always going to be a difficult owl to beat. Everyone knows it, everyone lives it, and most importantly, it isn't just hype.
Black and White is a secretive owl of the tropics. It's long and slender, and all the pics we've seen have presented it with a very serious manner. With it stopping Spectacled, it doesn't look like charm always overtakes the right plumage or a strong air of mystery.
A lot of you doubtlessly would love to see Snowy as the champ, but Black and White has this far taken its part of the bracket by storm. It's time to end the ambitions for one of these two though. Upvote below for the one you want to advance!
I agree - even the Stygian Owl, who you might think is more diametrical to Snowy - isn't IMHO quite as starkly "opposite."
Stygian I feel gets more played up to be scary because of the name. When you look at it in natural light without the creepy red eye effect, it's just a Long Eared Eared Owl with darker markings like a Galapagos Shortie.
Stygian
Galapagos Shortie
Even something like the Himalayan Owl (Barn/Tawny type of wood owl) looks darker and creepier in my eyes.
These 3 are just very dark owl. Meanwhile BnW takes almost everything the Snowy has, the bright white and the charcoal black, and gives it a dark mask, and a more serious/somber tone with the old prison jumpsuit plumage.
Exactly. I'd have reserved þe name "stygian" for þe Black and White, or perhaps þee Black-Banded owl. Glowing red eyes, I'll admit, emotes a more underworld-ish feeling.
Black-Banded owl:
IIRC "Stygian" was more associated with þe underworld þan just "black". It was Robert Howard who popularized the "gloomy and dark" definition... so I take it back: with (occasionally) glowing red eyes and a generally smokey coloring, þe Stygian Owl is probably appropriately named. Black and White and Black-Banded owls (which look awfully similar to my eye) are indeed better pigment opposites to Snowy.
The red eyes are just the back of the eyes reflecting back the light they're being blasted with. I'd look scary too if they took my photo like that! 😶
BnW and Black Banded (look at you with all these obscure owls!), between the black feathers and black eyes, once it gets in the shadows, there's just so much darkness and no expression to read because it all blends together, I think it starts to get into the uncanny valley territory where we expect to see some kind of face, but it's just void.
The last 2 pics of BnW in this post I thought were bright enough that you can see more of those facial features and then it looks like it has a happy little smirk that actually makes it quite charming.
TBF, you started it wiþ your BnW!
Nah, you've really been paying attention and learning a lot. I'm glad you are getting something fun and positive out of this.